Vijayawada: Krishna district collector P. Raja Babu has announced that water will be released to canals from the Pulichintala Project on April 6 to address the drinking water scarcity in the district. He said that after the release, it is expected that the water will reach the district within three to four days.
In anticipation of the summer and to address the drinking water scarcity across the district, Raja Babu convened a meeting with the Water Resources department and Panchayat Raj department officials at his chamber in the collectorate in Machilipatnam on Saturday. During the meeting, he inquired about the villages facing drinking water problems.
The collector instructed the officials to take steps to reach the water to the outskirts areas and to fill all drinking water tanks in the district. He also directed that all canals should be cleaned before the release of the drinking water to canals. The officials identified Machilipatnam (Bandar), Bantumilli, Kruthivennu, Nagayalanka, and Koduru as areas with severe drinking water problems. He instructed officials to prioritise taking the drinking water through canals to those areas and to fill all drinking water tanks in all villages and emphasised that no village should face drinking water scarcity this summer.
Raja Babu instructed that the water released to canals from the Pulichintala Project should only be used for drinking water purposes and not be diverted for any other purposes. He further instructed to monitor the usage of drinking water, teams comprising officials from the revenue, water resources, and police departments should be formed.
Irrigation Circle, Vijayawada superintendent engineer (SE) T.J.H. Prasad Babu, district panchayat officer (DPO) Nageswara Naik, drainage division executive engineer (EE) R. Vijaya Lakshmi, deputy EE Murali, and others took part in the meeting.
