Sri Yarlagadda Ranganayakulu Foundation

The Trust is engaged in rural development activity.

The Trust has taken up a programme of providing safe drinking water in Prakasam and Nalgonda Districts of Andhra Pradesh.

The first Safe Drinking Water unit of the Foundation was launched by Sri Dr. Y.V.Reddy I.A.S, Governor Reserve Bank of India on 18-02-2007 at Karamchedu village, Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh.

Safe Drinking Water Plants in Other Villages

Swamy Pranavananda
& Dr. Y.V.Reddy

After stabilizing of the Karamchedu Plant and the response from within and nearby the villages, similar plants are be proposed in several other villages.

The Foundation with the initiative and support of IICT, Hyderabad and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India is in the process of establishing deflourodisation plants in Nalgonda district, A.P. The Village of Allapur and tribal habitat of Rachakonda Gudi Thanda are selected for locating these safe drinking water plants.

SRIRANGA SUJALAM

Vision

To provide safe drinking water, as per WHO standards, in all the adopted villages.

Safe Drinking Water

As per WHO standards, it is generally observed that average consumption of water for drinking purpose is 2 liters per capita per day.

Need for Pure Drinking Water

Diseases due to contamination of drinking water constitute a major burden on health. Improvement in the quality of drinking water significantly benefits the health and well being of people. Foundation, therefore, is working towards provision of pure drinking water to the extent possible in its adopted villages.

BACKGROUND

Pollution To Irrigation Canals

Quality of water in the canals has dramatically deteriorated over the years due to pollution from various sources. Some of the sources of pollution are:

		Sewage/sullage and garbage from habitation.
		Wastes from hospitals, hotels, hostel messes, marriage halls, vegetable markets, etc., are also thrown into the canals.
		Poultry farmers seem to throw diseased birds into the canals.
		Industrial pollutants, though relatively less, are occasionally let into canals. Whenever this happens all the live forms in the water bodies are dead.
		Fish/prawn culture ponds discharge the effluent into the irrigation canals instead of drainage channels, due to lack or poor maintenance of drainage channels.
		End Result: The canal water is in an appalling state. If immediate steps are not taken, the ecological disaster that has taken place for the canal water system will lead to human tragedy by way of epidemics and ill health.

FLUORIDE FACTS

		Nalgonda is one of the 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh state 600 villages and 300,000 people are affected by excess fluoride in the underground water 10,000 people are totally crippled Plans to bring clean water from the river Krishna are under way at a cost of 12 billion rupees Experts say there is no cure for skeletal and dental fluorosis
		"This problem has been there for ages. The typical underground rock formation with fluoride is the root cause of the problem. And there is no solution other than bringing water from other areas through a pipeline."
		Local people have been demanding this for 30 years and say they want a supply of water from the River Krishna, which flows about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south-east of the area.
		This is a story of a land where excess fluoride has turned the ground water into a slow poison, crippling at least 10,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousand of others in constant misery.
		This is the story of Nalgonda, one of the poorest and most drought-prone districts of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
		The seriousness of the problem can be measured by the fact that the groundwater has 10 to 12 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride in contrast to a maximum permitted level of just 1.5 ppm.
		In the dust-filled hamlets and villages hardly 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the state capital Hyderabad there are many living examples of the havoc caused by fluoride.
		People with paralysing bone diseases, stooped backs, crooked hands and legs, deformed teeth, blindness and other handicaps are a common sight.

Present Water supply Scheme

		Most of the villages in Krishna delta are dependent on irrigation canals for drinking water.
		Each village has a pond, fed by the irrigation canal at regular intervals, storing required quantity of water.
		Under Rural Water Supply (RWS) scheme, in most villages, the water in the pond is put through Slow Sand Filters.
		The filtered water is chlorinated and pumped into an overhead tank for distribution through a system of pipes.

Problems Associated With Slow Sand Filter(SSF)

		The quality of raw water in the pond is extremely poor, resulting in frequent clogging of SSF's.
		SSF's are designed for the raw water turbidity upto 30 NTU but the actual turbidity is much higher, especially during the monsoon.
		SSF's are designed for 16 hours operation with 3-phase power. But, 3-phase power is available only for 6 hours a day in most of the villages.
		Rural Water Supply Schemes are designed to supply 40 litres of water per capita per day.
		Within the 6-hour duration of power, SSF's are unable to produce the specified quantity. This results in pumping of untreated (raw) water, in many instances, to meet the requirement.
		Poor condition and poor maintenance of the SSF's.
		The Grama Panchayats do not have adequate funds for proper maintenance of SSF's.

Test Results of Filtered Water

The test results of water samples, after filtration and chlorination, from several villages in Prakasam Guntur and Krishna Districts, show the following values:

S. No	Parameter amd Units	IS: 10500 –1991 (Desirable limit)	Remarks
1.	Coliform Organisms	Absent	Present in 50 % of Villages
2.	Turbidity, NTU, Max.	5	45 % of Villages have > 5
3.	Chlorides, mg/l, Max	250	13% of Villages have > 250
4.	Residual, free Chlorine, mg/l, Min	0.2	82% of villages have < 0.2

The test results showed that the presence of Coliform, Turbidity, Chlorides and other physical as well as chemical impurities in the water supplied by RWS Scheme. It was observed that 78% do not meet the safe water requirements on account of the above parameters. If the need for 0.2 ppm of residual Chlorine is also considered, 128 out of 133 villages, viz, 96% fail meeting the safe water standards.

Strategy for Providing Safe Drinking Water

		Creating awareness about current quality of water and need for its purification before consumption.
		Reduce pollution in the irrigation canals by various methods. It takes lot of resources and time.
		Improve the functioning of Slow Sand Filters. This is also a difficult and time consuming task.
		Rural Water Supply Schemes are designed to supply 40 litres of water per capita per day.
		Out of 40 litres per capita per day, only 2-3 litres of water is used for drinking and cooking purpose, which is about 5-7.5% of total quantity to be supplied in villages.
		It is much easier to treat 5-7.5% of water supplied to drinking water standards rather than the entire quantity.

Methodology

		Regular monitoring of drinking water quality through the invaluable and dedicated effort of action team of IICT, Hyderabad.
		Creating awareness among water users, authorities at local and State level.
		Training filter bed operators and monitoring their performance.
		Ensuring availability of required chemicals for water treatment.
		Facilitating repair and maintenance of filtration system.
		Providing water filters in schools.
		Educating public about water borne diseases and methods to combat them.
		Preventing pollution of water channels through effective use of local Government machinery.
		Developing, in collaboration with experts a cost effective home based water filtration system.

Foundation's efforts in reducing pollution to the irrigation canals

		All drainage outlets into the irrigation canals within Municipal limits have been proposed to be diverted to drainage system.
		This approach needs to be adopted in all other Municipalities to prevent major sources of pollution to canal.

Sullage Treatment

		Sullage is let into canals in many villages.
		Demo sullage units, based on the technology (Phytoremediation) developed by IICT Hyderabad, to be set up.
		These units absorb toxins and pollutants, and the treated waste water helps in ground water recharge.
		Proposes to set up sullage units in all Model villages (5 units each) and other adopted villages (2 units each).

Alliances

		Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.
		Department of Rural Water Supply, Government of Andhra Pradesh.
		Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

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