Covering her face with the ends of her blue saree, 65-year-old Chilaka Bhukya Bhai steps out of her home on a sweltering Monday morning, a walking stick in one hand and a large steel pot in another. Ambling through the narrow lanes of Remidicherla village in Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh, she makes her way to a tractor-tanker stationed about 200 metres away. She fills the pot with around 20 litres of water, places it on her head and walks back home, struggling with each step. Her daily journey is imbued with purpose; it is a ritual of survival, she says.
“This is our fate. What else can we do when there is a scarcity of water and proper facilities are not in place? I can’t walk properly due to knee problems, but I have to fetch water for myself,” she rues, about the physical and symbolic burden that she carries every day.
Six tractor-driven water tankers supply water to the village daily. Among them, one belongs to the State government’s Rural Water Supply & Sanitation (RWS&S) Department, while the rest are provided by the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress Party. Tractor drivers transport water five to six times daily from nearby agricultural fields, covering a distance of 2-3 kilometres per trip.
“Since it is election time, political leaders are showing keen interest in supplying water through tractor tankers at their own expense. Once the elections are over, we can’t expect such support from them,” says a resident of Remidicherla village, requesting anonymity. If the tankers stop supply, people will be forced to fetch water from other sources on their own, the villager adds.
Remidicherla, with a population of about 5,500, of which around 4,000 are eligible voters, faces a pressing need for water to sustain its 2,500 cattle, along with 10,000 goats and sheep. A former sarpanch of the village, Bareddy Venkateswara Reddy, 57, who earned national recognition for promoting the theme of ‘Water sufficiency and clean gram panchayat’, says the community has invested ₹3 crore in various water management initiatives, including the construction of temporary or small check dams, water percolation tanks, and the repair of summer storage (SS) tanks. All these initiatives, he says, contributed to a notable rise in groundwater levels. Despite these efforts, however, the village finds itself grappling with water scarcity, exacerbated by a prolonged dry spell and insufficient rainfall spanning over the past six months.
Venkateswara Reddy says there are approximately 300 borewells in residential areas, and nearly 1,000 in agricultural lands, all reaching depths of around 1,000 feet. The cost of drilling each borewell comes to at least ₹100 per foot.
Bareddy Mallepu Reddy, another village elder, stresses the importance of completing the Varikapudisela Lift Minor Irrigation project as a crucial step in tackling the water scarcity issue in Bollapalli mandal, which includes Remidicherla. He points out that none of the 10 SS tanks or water storage ponds in the village currently holds any water.
Moreover, over half of the households are compelled to pay at least ₹7,500 annually to private water suppliers. About 10 people supply water through borewells dug on their agricultural lands, going as far as laying pipelines spanning about 2 km to ensure consistent water supply throughout the year.
Bareddy Krishna Reddy, a water supplier, says, “Good rain means fewer problems and less rain means the opposite. But water problem is common here throughout the year in our village, since there is no proper tap water supply system.”
Most villagers of Remidicherla are dependent on agriculture and allied activities. Those who have agricultural land or can afford to take land on rent have been cultivating commercial crops such as chilli. The others work as daily wage labourers.
Widespread crisis
The government also supplies water through tractor-tankers, but Remidicherla village is not the only one facing a drinking water crisis in the State. According to recent data provided by the RWS&S Department, many habitations in Andhra Pradesh are facing a severe water scarcity this summer, the worst this decade. Groundwater levels have depleted significantly. In coastal Andhra Pradesh, the average groundwater level stands at around 10.52 metres below ground level (mbgl), while in Rayalaseema districts, it is 11.59 mbgl.
In coastal Andhra Pradesh, at least 10 mandals in Nellore district, 31 mandals in Prakasam district, and two mandals in NTR district are facing water scarcity, and relying solely on groundwater. Similarly, in other regions, including Chittoor, Annamayya, Satya Sai, Anantapur, Nandyal, and Kurnool districts, water scarcity is prevalent in four, 18, 21, 31, 16, and 25 mandals, respectively. Officials of RWS&S Department anticipate the water levels to decrease further over the next two months.
The actual rainfall in Andhra Pradesh for 2023-24 has been recorded as 725.9 mm till date, against normal rainfall of 895.9 mm, which is a deviation of about -19%. In the last couple of decades, there was a deviation of -9.5% rainfall during 2019-20, -34.3% in 2018-19, -14.4% in 2017-18, -30.9% in 2016-17, -5.5% in 2015-16, -26.2% in 2014-15, -10.3% in 2009-10, -17.9% in 2004-05 and -35.9% in 2002-03.
At the same time, the depletion of groundwater levels across the State was recorded at 10.85 mbgl in March this year. In the last two decades, the water levels were recorded as 8.67 mbgl in 2023, 9.24 mbgl in 2021, 10.84 mbgl in 2020, 15.68 mbgl in 2019, 12.30 mbgl in 2018, 13.72 mbgl in 2017, 11.51 mbgl in 2016, 13.17 mbgl in 2015, 10.16 mbgl in 2012, 10.64 mbgl in 2010, 12.37 mbgl in 2005, 11.38 mbgl in 2004 and 11.61 mbgl in 2003.
Explaining the statistics, senior officers at the Water Resources, RWS&S, and Groundwater Departments have said that the contingency plans, which are being implemented by the State government this summer, will reduce the drinking water problem. They have assured people that the available water in reservoirs and Summer Storage (SS) tanks will be sufficient to meet the demands of the State until June, after which the onset of monsoon is expected.
Meeting summer demand
Failure of both southwest and northeast monsoon, coupled with heatwaves, has led to drastic depletion of the groundwater table in the State. As a result, many borewell sources have dried up. Additionally, the failure of the monsoon has reduced reservoir levels, making it difficult to fill drinking water and SS tanks through the canal system to meet the summer demand.
At the same time, senior officers at the Water Resources and RWS&S Departments of Andhra Pradesh have exuded confidence that the present water level in the reservoirs will be sufficient to meet demands until June. This confidence stems from two recent developments that have favoured the State government in managing the prevailing drought. Andhra Pradesh, being a lower riparian State on the Godavari River, received water released from the upper riparian Telangana State when the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project was damaged in 2023.
In addition, the A.P. government took over the control of releasing water from Krishna river, by pushing out Telangana establishments on the Nagarjuna Sagar project. These two developments proved to be a boon for Andhra Pradesh in mitigating water scarcity to some extent in riverine areas. But, most habitations which depend on groundwater as a primary source have been at the receiving end.
Government initiatives
RWS&S Department officials informed Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy that they have taken several measures to mitigate the drought situation, during a recent review meeting.
A crash programme for preventive maintenance and repairs to hand pumps and various water supply schemes was initiated well before summer. The government declared drought in 158 mandals across several districts and sanctioned ₹42.68 crore for drought mitigation measures. This includes flushing and deepening of borewells, transporting water to needy habitations, and filling SS tanks. An additional action plan of ₹30.88 crore was prepared for 212 mandals facing a drought-like situation.
Water was released from the Prakasam barrage and Nagarjuna Sagar right canal to various districts for drinking water purposes. Filling of 91 SS tanks of Community Piped Water Supply and 934 SS tanks of Public Water Supply has been completed.
Efforts to mitigate drinking water problems have resulted in a decrease in the number of habitations requiring water transportation, from 5,059 to 2,302, according to data provided by the RWS&S. Further, sanctions for the transportation of drinking water until June have been proposed in 117 mandals, covering 1,432 habitations. Drinking water transportation has commenced in 224 habitations across 29 mandals in Guntur, Prakasam, Annamayya, Nandyal, and Kurnool districts.
RWS&S staff are conducting regular inspections in all habitations to identify and address drinking water issues, the Chief Secretary stated in a press release recently.
The Department has identified 1,669 sanctioned works that have not yet begun and has submitted them to the Election Commission for approval to execute them, including drilling borewells and installing pumpsets.
Call centres have been set up in each district to receive public calls regarding drinking water problems. In addition, a command control centre (CCC) has been established in the Commissioner Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department to receive and resolve drinking water issues. So far, 2,178 out of 2,925 issues have been resolved at the CCC.
