The Hindu                       15.04.2013

Ongole gets Krishna water

Summer storage tanks start receiving inflows from Nagarjunasagar.

In a major relief to Ongolites, the summer storage tanks in the city started receiving Krishna water from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir to overcome drinking water problem till the onset of Southwest monsoon.

“We have started receiving about 100 cusecs of water from the Ramtheertham balancing reservoir through gravity”, Municipal Commissioner S. Ravindrababu said while talking to The Hindu here on Sunday after inspecting the summer storage tanks.

“We are making all out efforts to push in maximum quantity of water into the two summer storage tanks in a short span of time by pressing into service electric motors”, he explained.

At least four electric motors would be engaged to draw as much water as possible from the canal, he explained.

“If both the tanks gets filled up fully, we can take care of the drinking water needs of the city upgraded into Municipal Corporation, in the next three to four months”, he added.

The availability of water in the two summer storage tanks in Ongole had plummeted to 1,180 million litres as against the total storage capacity of 5,800 ml and the storage in one of them had touched the dead storage level, municipal officials said.

Over 200 million litres of water will be lost due to evaporation as the summer peaks.

The irrigation authorities have promised to ensure water releases for about 20 days as against the normal practice of water releases of 40 days when the storage gets added through gravity, they added.

The Prakasam district administration has sought release of 4.7 tmc ft of Krishna water to fill the major water storage tanks in the city and over 240 notified and non-notified tanks in other villages and towns in the drought-prone district in a month’s time.