Visakhapatnam: Reservoirs that supply water to Vizag city are yet to reach the maximum levels. The moderate to heavy rains at few places in North Andhra region has not improved the water levels.
The GVMC officials say that North Andhra region requires more rains at the catchment areas for improvement in the water levels in the reservoirs. Though south-west monsoon has onset on June 14 this year, Vizag region has not received good rainfall so far and most of the reservoirs are waiting for the inflows.
The situation was better in the past two years in terms of water levels in these reservoirs. This year, the Yeleru reservoir has managed to reach a level of only 238.12 feet, as against its maximum level of 283.99 feet. The water levels in the other major reservoirs that supply water to Vizag city, including Raiwada and Tatipudi, are also much below the expected levels.
The present water levels in the Raiwada reservoir was 360.82 feet, as against the maximum capacity of 373.33 feet and similarly the maximum water capacity of Tatipudi reservoir was 297 feet but the present water level is only 279.36 feet.
Due to poor rainfall and hot weather conditions in Vizag region, the Mudasarlova reservoir in the city looks like a dry lake.
The reservoir that generally fills up after initial spells of rain is at 153.1 ft against a minimum drawing level of 152 feet ringing alarm bells. The present water level at Meghadri Gedda Reservoir was 49 feet against the maximum capacity of 60 feet. While the Yeleru contributes about 28 MGD of water to Vizag city on a given day, the Raiwada reservoir supplies around 16 MGD, followed by Tatipudi and Meghadri Gedda which supply 9 MGD each.
Admitting that water levels at the reservoirs were not much encouraging, officials of GVMC said that regular flow of drinking water and agricultural purposed has been brought down the water levels. If the skies don’t open gallons of water in the coming days, Vizagites may face water crisis in the near future, they added.
Professor in Geology of Andhra University, Nandipati Subba Rao said that most of the precious rain water run off fast into Bay of Bengal due to lack of rainwater harvesting system and proper storage methods.
Sources in GVMC said that the current demand for water stands at 80 MGD, however, it is able to supply only 55 MGD.
Of the total eight major drinking water sources, four sources sustain up to October only.
