Assembly Elections 2024: Located on river bank, Srisailam assembly poll revolves around water crisis

Srisailam: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'water water everywhere but not a drop to drink' line aptly describes the paradox of rural families of the Srisailam assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh, who battle to get water although living near a dam.

Many of the residents of Sunnipenta village in Srisailam mandal, located just 5-7 km away from the Srisailam dam, are getting piped water supply once a week and at times once in ten days.

The low level of water in the dam owing to lack of rainfall has further aggravated the water woes here, an issue which has taken centre stage in the political campaign ahead of the May 13 Assembly polls.

Out of five mandals in Srisailam Assembly Constituency having around 1.9 lakh voters, the problem of water shortage is acute in Srisailam and Atmakur mandals.

"We have lived with water scarcity for many years and nothing has changed. It's been seven days, there is no piped water supply," said Hussain who runs a cold drinks shop at the Sunnipenta bus stand.

Ahead of elections just four months back, the incumbent YSRCP government built five water tanks in the village. However the tap connections in some areas are yet to reach, he told PTI.

To tide over the water crisis, some of the residents are managing with borewells while others are buying water, he added.

"It is not that water is not there in the reservoir to meet the demand of this village. The problem is something else," said Srinivas Reddy, another resident of the village as he watches the roadshow of the TDP candidate at the circle of the bus stand.

Lack of manpower to pump the water from the dam, frequent repair of the motor and incomplete tap connections— are the main reasons for the water crisis, he added.

TDP candidate Budda Raja Sekhara Reddy said, "It's a paradox there is water in the dam, but no water supply to the houses of residents of Sunnipenta village despite living near it." He claimed that a three-stage pumping was installed to lift water from the dam with a budget of Rs 17 crore during the TDP tenure. Unfortunately, the existing government did not continue the work.

"People are hesitant to give their daughter in marriage in this village as shortage of water leads to a lot of hardship in running their homes. They have to fetch water from remote places just to survive," Reddy said and promised to address the issue if he was elected in the upcoming elections.

However, YSRCP leader Silpa Chakrapani Reddy, who is seeking re-election from this segment, dismissed the allegations of the Opposition saying, "We have done a lot of development work here. There is a lot more to do and we will do in the second term." While poor rainfall has led to reduction of water level in the dam, lack of political will has further intensified the water shortage issue, affecting every household.

The Srisailam Dam, located in the middle of the Nagarjuna Sagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, is also called the Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Sagar Project named in honour of the first Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh.

The dam, inaugurated in October 1982, was constructed across river Krishna with a length of 1288 km of which 720 km is in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

"Since there is no standby motor to pump the water from the dam, there is water scarcity when a motor stops working. It takes at least 15 days for the repair," another resident Valli said.

Valli, whose father after World War 2 worked as a driver during the construction of the dam in the 1960s, said the irrigation department employees are understaffed and the government has not filled the vacant posts after the retirement of the old employees.

However, according to the assistant engineer (water supply) in the irrigation department at Srisailam Chittibabu, "There was a water problem earlier and not anymore." As per officials data, there was 33.34 TMC of water in the Srisailam dam as of April 27 while the dam's total capacity is about 807 TMC.

Srisailam assembly segment has 33 candidates in the fray, each one professing different ideology and commitment to do different things for the people. But one thing that remains common to all of them is acknowledgment of acute water problem.

People are hopeful that irrespective of whoever wins the elections, life becomes easier for them.