Karimnagar: The district is undergoing severe shortage of drinking water as suggested by statistics given by authorities of rural water supply.
Private Wells are being hired and water is being transported through tankers in order to quench thirst of nearly 400 villages across the district, following unprecedented depletion of groudwater table.
The district has 2,247 habitations. Out of them, 907 villages are equipped with sufficient water facilities. The remaining ones have partial drinking water sources. Among them, 326 villages are being provided with drinking water by hiring 650 private wells located in neighbouring places. Similarly, 62 habitations are able to quench their thirst following transportation of water from nearby sources.
As many as 135 wells were rented in order to supply drinking water to 57 habitations in Vemulawada Assembly constituency. A total of 126 wells were hired and 89 wells were leased in Huzurabad for 42 and 41 villages in Sircilla and Husnabad segments, respectively, according to information available with rural water supply (RWS) department.
Peddapalli Assembly constituency appears to the most affected one as it is forced to rely on water transported from other parts. At present, 17 habitations of this segment are being given water through tankers.
Similarly, 11 villages of Vemuladawada and eight in Dharmapuri segment are able to hydrate with the help of transported water. In order to hire, Rs 6,000 is being paid for each well per month. Around Rs 500 is spent for transporting every tanker of water.
Recently, Rs 4.47 crore was granted to the district by the Union government under calamity relief fund (CRF) for overcoming the water crisis. In the meantime, Rs 16.64 crore was sanctioned by state government for augmenting existing water sources, said RWS superintendent engineer T. S. Prakash Rao
Mr Prakash Rao said that a slew of measures were being taken to handle the situation. “Groundwater table has been depleted like never before in many mandals. However, the table would be improved in the third week of April,” he said.
