With water scarcity looming large in the Prakasam district, officials have constituted special teams to tap the water which will be released from the Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal (NSRC) from April 8, to tackle the drinking water crisis.
The teams comprising Water Resources, Municipal, Rural Water Supply (RWS), Police, Revenue, Agriculture and Irrigation departments, will patrol the canal bunds to ensure that the water is not lifted or diverted for agriculture and is solely used as drinking water. Officials will release 5 TMC of water from NSRC to fill the tanks for about 15 days, of which 2.5 TMC will be given to the Western Prakasam district.
Officers and staff deputed for inspecting the canal bunds, who have also been drafted for election duties, including nodal and sector officers, flying squad teams, polling officers, and assistant polling officers are directed to attend to the canal patrolling duties, said Prakasam District Collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar.
The Sub-Collector, Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) and Mandal Revenue Officers (MROs) concerned have been instructed to form village-level teams comprising the Sarpanch, Panchayat Secretary, Village Revenue Officer (VRO), Engineering Assistant and Lascar in each team immediately.
Control Rooms
Control rooms will be opened, to function round-the-clock to ensure 100 per cent filling of the tanks. The special officers, tahsildars and irrigation officers should take appropriate measures for the same, the Collector said in his orders issued recently.
“The teams should remove the electric motors and engines, if any on the bunds, to prevent lifting water through tunnels and sluices, and check water diversion for crops and seed beds. The water released from the NSRC is for drinking purposes only,” Mr. Kumar said.
Of the 952 minor tanks, notified tanks near the canals would be filled now and with the release of water, tanks located in Yerragondlapalem, Pullalacheruvu, Markapuram, Tripurantakam, Ongole, Kurichedu, Darsi, Cheemakurthi, Santanutalapadu and other mandals would also be filled, irrigation officials inform.
“At present, all streams and canals have dried up due to acute water scarcity in many villages. If the tanks are filled, drinking water would be sufficient in the mandals in Western Prakasam,” an irrigation official told The Hindu on Saturday.
