KURNOOL: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy sought a detailed report on the water contamination deaths in Kurnool district as four people died and scores of people in Adoni and Gorakallu are undergoing treatment.
He asked health minister A. Kalikrishna Srinivas (Alla Nani) to visit the gastroenteritis-affected places in the district on Friday.
The situation goof-up has drawn flak from the Chief Minister and a few heads may roll, according to sources.
Adoni MLA Y Sai Prasad Reddy said at present the situation in Adoni is under control and they have been monitoring the situation. The number of water contamination victims continues to rise in Adoni as 83 persons, mostly women and children, are undergoing treatment.
Adoni municipality is accused of supplying contaminated water from Ramjal point while the municipal commissioner said proposals for laying new pipelines are underway.
Adoni municipality, which is one of the oldest municipalities in Andhra Pradesh, does not have basic civic infrastructure. There is no sewage treatment plant in the town. The generated sewage is getting discharged to the nearby open areas and to water bodies untreated. There is no systematic method to collect and treat waste from septic tanks.
Municipal commissioner RG Krishna said the city does not have a sewage treatment plant. Only one plant on Yemmiganur road is being used for segregating wet and dry garbage. On the condition of water pipelines and some of them mixing with sewerage, he said “We are now replacing the old pipeline step by step in the town”. He also confirmed that water from Ramjala lake, a local irrigation water resource that caused contamination has been stopped and now water is being drawn from the Basapuram summer storage tank. He said that since repair work was underway at Basapuram SS tank they shifted to Ramjala and supplied water from there till Wednesday.
Ramjala water point is full of bacteria and algae. Having turned green, it looks like herbal and not mineral water, said Ajamtullah, a resident of Adoni. Rusted pipelines, haphazard cleaning of overhead tanks and infrequent chlorination were causing health problems,” he said.
Krishnamurthy, a retired engineer said that in Adoni town, there is no organized method to collect and treat waste from septic tanks. The periodicity of cleaning these septic tanks is approximately once in 1-3 years. The overflows are let out into the open drains, which ultimately join the natural nala or open fields.
Efforts have to be made to treat the waste water suitably and dispose of it in an environmentally friendly manner, he said.
