Villagers pour out their water woes.
Prakasam district faces severe drought for the third consecutive year this year.
“Forget about getting assured irrigation for their crops, we are forced to buy water from the two water treatment plants which fortunately still had water in their deep borewells.
“I take bath once in three or four days by sharing a pot of water with my wife,” says a farm worker, Chandrasekar, highlighting the severity of the water scarcity in the village.
The situation is no different in the Musi riverbed villages like Karumanchi, Nidamalur, Pidathalapudi, Ramachandrapuram, Regalagadapalem and Ponduru.
In Maddaluru, people trek at least five km to get a few pots of water by digging the dry riverbed of Musi which had lost its water holding capacity due to indiscriminate sand mining allegedly by sand mafia.
Kidney disease “Even if it meant trekking a long distance for water, we prefer river water as the groundwater had high fluoride content,” explains a group of women while making a mention of the doctors’ suggestion to them to consume only surface water and avoid fluoride-affected groundwater to ward off chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Six persons had succumbed to CKD in their village in a short period.
The State government should divert the Krishna water from Nagarjunasgar to Musi riverbed villages to find a permanent solution to the water woes of the people, says CPI(ML) New Democracy Prakasam district secretary Ch.
Venkateswarlu.