Even as Rayalaseema is reeling under severe water shortage with fast-depleting ground water and drying water bodies, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s home turf Pileru is facing the worst.

Not having any major water bodies near the town apart from a small rivulet, Pilla Eru that remains mostly dry through out the year and the bore wells those are drying up fast, Pileru with 1,200 households and 41,000 population is grappling with the severe water woes. A majority of the localities now gets water once in 5 to 22 days as the drinking water supply by the civic body by tractors falls short to quench the town’s thirst. Families here buy a pot of water at `3 from the tractors, spending around `2,000 a month. 

The civic body here has employed only six tractors which fetch water from far away borewells in five trips a day.

Though the civic body is supplying water through tankers at `600, it is beyond the affordability of the poor. “We buy five to ten pots of water a day, which use strictly for drinking. We even wash our clothes at our work places as we are already spending `25 for water per day,” said  Narayanamma, a daily wager. The woes are even pinching the middle class. “ The water we get at `600 per tanker is just adequate for drinking and bathing. Neither can we spend more nor tread far-off places to fetch water by ourselves. We are not even washing clothes regularly, said a clerk of a government college.

Situation is similar in Indira Nagar Erram Reddy Gunta, Kattu kalava, Boya Palem street, Pedda Masjid Sandhu and others.