Hyderabad: Drinking water supply to new capital city Amaravati has become a big problem for the state government due to lack of water source in the area. The AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) has estimated that 30 MGD of drinking water is required for one lakh population of Amaravati city. After two years, the requirement would go up to 40-45 MGD of drinking water for two lakh population.
At present, there is no water source in the CRDA area for supplying of drinking water. Allocations have already been made for the available water in Krishna and Godavari. Singapore has proposed supply of drinking water for Amaravati city with Krishna water from Pulichintala and Godavari water from Polavaram.
Singapore has proposed construction of two reservoirs in the CRDA area and fills these reservoirs through lifting from Pulichintala or Polavaram. If one reservoir is filled the water will reach the second reservoir through gravity. State government has asked the Centre for separate allocation of 10 TMCs of Krishna water for drinking water purpose of Amaravati city.
In the meeting of implementation of master plan for Amaravati city, the Singapore representative Khoo Teng Chye, the executive director for Centre for Liveable cities of Singapore, asked the CRDA officials the proposal for drinking water supply to Amaravati city.
Krishna district collector said that Prakasam barrage and Pattiseema projects have no reservoirs and cannot supply drinking water to Amar-avati from these two projects.
CRDA commissioner N. Srikanth said there is allocation of Krishna water for 21,000 acres, which were pooled for the construction of capital city. He said this water can be used for drinking water purpose since there will be no agriculture activity in these fields.
He said consumption of water for commercial purposes is less than agriculture purpose. CRDA commissioner Mr Srikanth said there is a proposal to construct a barrage at Vykuntapuram and from there water will be lifted to the reservoirs to be constructed in the capital area.
AP Irrigation official Visweswar Rao said there is a temporary proposal to construct a barrage at Vadlamanu with the capacity of 5 TMC and water will be lifted to capital city. The permanent proposal is construction of barrage at Maneru with a capacity of 8 TMC. From there water will be lifted to the reservoirs in the capital city.
At present, Vijayawada city is facing 30 per cent scarcity of drinking water problem. In this situation how is it possible to supply water for Amaravati city, questioned officials. Unless there will be a separate allocation of water for Amaravati city it is not possible to supply drinking water, they said. If separate allocation is made, Telangana state may object, they said.
