Several interior areas face severe water shortage Godavari resembles a stream

Many tribal hamlets in the agency belt in Jayashankar Bhupalapalli district are facing acute drinking water shortage.

The absence of proper drinking water supply in the interior areas, coupled with the drying up of all the water bodies in the surroundings and many hamlets in and around Kusuru, Kadekal, Eppapuram and Pallekapaka of Vajedu and Venkatapuram mandals has left people struggling to find even a pot of water.

Most of these tribal hamlets are dependent on small streams in their for drinking water.

But due to the harsh summer, these streams have dried up.

The nearby river Godavari, too, has almost dried up and now resembles a small stream.

Women of Soyamvari gumpu tribe are forced to walk several kilometres through the jungle in search of water. They make do by digging small ditches in the riverbed of the Godavari from which they get a little water that they carry back home in their pots. They are afraid they may not find even this much of water in the coming days.

The villagers of Kusuru and Kadekal and Palipaka allege that officials are not taking any action to address their woes. Only one tanker is being sent to these villages that have a population over 400 families.

“All our water sources have dried up. The hand pump does not give water anymore. The handful of drinking water wells have dried up and only a little water is left in them. The officials are sending only one water tanker to the village every day and it is not sufficient for all of us. We have to fight among ourselves to get water. Even after all this we do not get even 10 litres per house,” said D. Nagesh of Kusuru.

In Kadekal village, there is only one drinking water well that is almost dry and the water has turned dirty. Due to acute shortage of water, some people found no other option but to draw the dirty water. Those who drank that water fell ill and struck from fever. The enforcement task force teams set up with retired police officers to check irregularities in public distribution system have been yielding good results.

In three months this year from February, the enforcement wing conducted raids at 179 places across the state and filed 56 cases on ration shops.

Apart from nine criminal cases, they seized 3,507 quintals of PDS rice, 937 quintals of paddy meant for customised milling, rice worth `1 crore, illegally stocked sugar worth `2.15 lakh, LPG cylinders and kerosene.

The raids checked illegal transportation of sanna biyyam (fine quality rice) ration rice worth `3.16 crore.

Commissioner of civil supplies C.V. Anand stated that the enforcement task force teams set up with retired police officers to check malpractices and corruption in distribution of essential commodities under PDS were proving extremely helpful.

He said frequent raids also showed growth in the performance of mandal-level stock points (godowns) and ration shops.

Strict measures at the state border have resulted in decrease in the illegal supply of PDS rice to other states, he said.

The department appointed an enforcement wing with five teams of 20 members each.