Drying Penna, low water table alarm Proddatur

PRODDATUR: Depleting groundwater levels in Penna river has become cause of great concern for residents of Proddatur town, who are solely dependent on the river and groundwater for water.With no rainfall last two years, Penna river is drying fast day by day, groundwater levels in its river bed and adjoining areas are also fast depleting.The unchecked sand quarrying had further hastened the depletion of the ground-water levels. The high court has already taken the issue of illegal sand mining seriously. Environmentalists are crying out loud about the domino effect mining will have on the ecology.The court has directed the district administration to ban the sand mining until further orders. But illegal sand mining continues, as evident from an accident during sand mining recently in the district, which saw the loss of two lives.Another reason for the fast depletion of groundwater in the region is over-exploitation of ground water. With demand for packaged water on the rise, ground water is being over-exploited as several mineral water plants have mushroomed across the town.Government officials are not making any effort to check them, though it is illegal. As per municipal norms, every individual in the town should be supplied 135 litres per day, but on any given day, the supply will not exceed 60 percent of the required amount.Proddatur has a population of 1.62 lakh. As against the required 21.98 MLD, the present supply is below 12.40 MLD. The works pertaining to Penna-Kundu flood canal is yet to be completed, the necessary land has not been acquired so far.With no water in Mylavaram reservoir, there is no scope for release of water into Penna from there. Municipal officials had sunk 10 borewells in the Penna river bed. But of them six have not yielded results, which shows the extent of groundwater depletion.Municipal commissioner G Venkatarao admitted that the situation is alarming and their efforts for remedying the situation is not yielding results. With no water from Mylavaram, they tried to get 0.5 TMC of water from Ouku reservoir in Kurnool, but their efforts proved futile.