Even in a year when the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) reservoir, which is replenishing Ongole’s drinking water supply, has reached full capacity, the city’s water problems are not over.
The two summer storage tanks that supply the citizens with water have to be replenished twice a year. Even if the position in the two tanks is comfortable, water is only added once in three days. In the worst case, when the storage in the tanks sinks to a low level, water is only added once in five days. It takes about 45 days to fill the SS tanks, as the canal has a limited capacity of 100 Cusecs and carries Krishna water.
To ensure a 24×7 supply to residents, the solution is to deepen the Valluru Cheruvu and Pelluru Cheruvu and fill them with Krishna water, said Marella Subba Rao, president of Ongole’s Urban Development Committee, adding that so too the water supply of hundreds of villages would now increase depended on the two bodies of water.
Former AP chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had allocated 8 billion yen to deepen the tanks over an area of 900 acres. But the files on the project are now gathering dust after the change of government.
The current government of Jagan Mohan Reddy should take up the project with the highest priority in order to also unlock the tourist potential, following the example of Swarnala Cheruvu in Nellore, which was developed with a view to the pilgrims’ meeting during ‘Rotela Panduga’, said K. Madhu , Member of the Ongole Citizens Association.
Tourism potential
If the waters are tapped, the tourist potential of a number of beaches in the district, including Kothapatnam, Ramayapatnam, Pakala, Etamukala, and Karedu, could also be tapped by building a tourist resort near the Valluramma Temple on the outskirts and organizing tourism Package tours to nearby locations like Jambulapalem with 1,008 sivalingas and Singarayakonda, they explained.
In the meantime, the two summer storage tanks are quickly filled with Krishna water, which is released from the NSP to the Ramatheertham expansion tank. The two summer storage tanks had a combined storage of 4,526.45 million liters versus the full capacity of 5,800 ml, said OMC City Engineer D. Sundarami Reddy.
Storage in SS TANK-1 has now reached 1,893.20 ml from the full 1950 ML and 2633.25 ml in SS Tank-2 from the full 3850 ML, the official added.