Kothagudem residents reeling under severe shortage of drinking water

With water taps running dry for the past eight days the residents are forced to depend on a meagre supply of water which the municipality made to the residents through water tankers

Kothagudem: The residents in Kothagudem Municipality are reeling under severe shortage of drinking water due to alleged negligence of municipal officials.

With water taps running dry for the past eight days the residents are forced to depend on a meagre supply of water which the municipality made to the residents through water tankers. But not all the municipal wards are fortunate enough to get water through the tankers. The residents are complaining that water tankers are being sent to a few municipal wards while leaving out the majority of wards. There are over 9, 000 tap connections in 36 wards and the daily demand for water supply is estimated to be 13.97 million litres per day (MLD).

It might be noted that the residents in Kothagudem town are supplied water on alternate days from Kinnerasani reservoir. But quite often pipe lines supplying water are getting damaged disrupting water supply to residences.

According to municipal officials the pipeline at Regalla was damaged and that led to disruption in water supply. But the residents alleged pipelines getting damaged has become a regular phenomenon but the officials are not taking any concrete steps to address the issue.

Congress leader and former councillor B Satyabhama lamented that she is unable to answer the residents in her ward when they question her about the water scarcity. There are 500 families in the ward and they are facing serious problems due lack of water supply for the past eight days.

She recently met Paloncha municipal commissioner K Sujatha, in-charge of Kothagudem municipality and highlighted the severity of the problem while urging her to address it. Speaking to Telangana Today a resident of Ramavaram area Durga Rao demanded that the local MLA K Sambasiva Rao and Collector Jitesh V Patil should lay focus on the issue and take immediate steps to find a permanent solution to repeated disruption of water supply.

Due to the lack of a regular municipal commissioner for Kothagudem there is no effective monitoring of the water supply system. No meeting was held to review water supply in the town even after two months passed since summer season started. It is sad that the officials failed to repair the damaged pipeline even after a week, he said.