Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Desilting on in Krishna river

By Our Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA, MAY 7. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) authorities have launched a massive operation to ensure that the drop of water level in Krishna river does not affect the water supply. Excavators have been pressed into service and divers are working round-the-clock to remove silt and other materials blocking the intake pipes from which water is pumped into the K.L.Rao Head Water Works at Bhavanipuram.

The Head Water Works supply 70 per cent, that is 29 million gallons a day, of water being distributed by the VMC. There are three intake wells from which river water is drawn into the treatment plants. Water is pumped from the first and oldest well into the five MGD treatment plant. The second well provides water to the 16 MGD plant and the third well provides water to the new eight MGD plant.

The Irrigation Department has begun depletion of water upstream the Prakasam barrage by releasing 4,000 cusecs into the Krishna Eastern and Western main canals. The level of water has decreased by six feet exposing the intake pipes through which water flows into the feeder wells.

The VMC Superintending Engineer, M.Satyanarayana, said here on Friday that there was no need to be alarmed about the depletion of water. There was provision to draw water from intake pipes that were set deeper down. The deepest intake pipe of the first well was at 45 feet above mean sea level (MSL). Silt was being removed from around the intake pipe with the help of excavators and a channel was being dug on the riverbed from the intake pipe to the main body of water.

Mr. Satyanaryana said that in Gandipet water storage tank in Hyderabad too, water level often dropped below the level of the intake pipes. Water has not gone down below the point where intake pipes were fitted at the second well which supplied water to the 16 MGD treatment plant.

Mr. Satyanarayana said once the desilting operation was completed, muddy water in the pit near the intake pipes would be pumped out to allow clear water to flow in through the channel from the river. He said there would no turbidity problem because there was ample fresh water in the river. Mr. Satyanarayana hoped that there would be an increase in water level once the construction of the cross-bund was completed.

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