As water in major drinking water tanks, including the
two summer storage tanks in the city, are fast depleting, the citizens
of the city recently upgraded to municipal corporation want the State
government to release Krishna waters early from the Nagarjunasagar
reservoir to tide over the water crisis during summer.

With
the present water in the two summer storage tanks enough to meet the
city’s drinking water requirement only for the next 10 to 15 days, the
Prakasam district administration is pressing for 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 district over a period of one month.

”Replenishment
of water during the next one week is imperative. We have explained to
the higher state officials about the factual position. We are expecting
release of Krishna water positively in the first week of April,”
district Collector G.S.R.K.R. Vijaykumar told reporters here.

Meanwhile,
TDP MLA from Markapur Kandula Narayan Reddy said the present storage in
Markapur town would be sufficient to meet the drinking water needs of
people only for two days.

He threatened to launch an indefinite fast from April 2 if there was any delay in Krishna water release beyond April 1.

The
availability of water in the two summer storage tanks in Ongole was
only 1,000 million litres as against the total storage capacity of 5,800
ml, civic body officials said.

Over 200 million
litres of water would be lost due to evaporation. Water should be
replenished by river Krishna in April to meet the drinking water
requirement till the onset of southwest monsoon, they added.

Meanwhile,
Forum for Good Governance president Alla Venkateswara Rao suggested
desilting of wells in disuse in the city and construction of drinking
water tanks on the city outskirts in Pernamitta and Koppulu to meet the
drinking water needs of colonies which had been added to the upgraded
municipal corporation.

Water supply to Ongole could be augmented from the Gundlakamma reservoir in the long term, he added.