The city will have its own intake well along the foreshores of Nagarjunasagar in Nalgonda district, which will be a boon for the citizens during the parched summer months, as the Water Board will be able to draw water from Nagarjunasagar even when the level falls below 510 feet in the dam. This intake point will be constructed at a location near Sunkeshila along the foreshores of Nagarjunasagar, which is at a lower level compared to the point from where the water is currently being lifted by APGenco and the irrigation department.
The Water Board will then no longer depend on APGenco and the irrigation department to lift water and pump it for the Board to tap it from a certain point, and then supply it to the city after treating it at the Kodandapur plant. APGenco has been facing difficulties in pumping water when the levels fall below 510 feet in Nagarjunasagar. Also, due to lack of coordination between the Water Board, irrigation department and APGenco, there is always the threat of water supply to the city being affected.
The city faced a near water-crisis this summer after the cistern at Puttan-gandi near Nagarjuna-sagar was damaged. It took more than a month for the cistern to be repaired and that too after the Board sought the state government’s intervention. The state government issued directions to the irrigation department and also released more than a crore of rupees to repair the cistern.
Currently, Greater Hyde-rabad receives 180 million gallons of water per day from Nagarjunasagar under Krishna project phase-I and phase-II. After the execution of Krishna phase-III, the total draw per day will be 270 MGD or 16.5 TMC per year. Tata Consultancy, which prepared the detailed project report for execution of Krishna phase-III at an estimated cost of Rs 1,670 crore, also recommended that it was always safe for Water Board to have its own intake point along the foreshores of Nagarjuna-sagar to draw water for all the phases of Krishna project without depending on other departments.
“We have written to the irrigation department about the proposal for construction of an intake point near Sunkeshila,” said M. Satyanarayana, Water Board director (projects).