Short circuit leaves half of city high and dry for water
Despite a good monsoon, several parts of the city have been facing an acute water crisis with 10 out of 16 operations and maintenance (O&M) divisions with no water for five days now.
Areas like Kushaiguda, Cherlapally, Kapra, Mallapur, Alwal, Malkajgiri, Kukatpally Housing Board, L.B. Nagar and several other reservoirs within the Outer Ring Road (ORR) limits have not been receiving drinking water supply for days.
Due to short circuit, several motors were defunct and about 10 O&M wings, especially in the Godavari command area, have been not receiving due to water shortage. Though people have been suffering, neither the Hyderabad metropolitan water supply and sewerage board (HMWSSB) officials nor elected representatives including city mayor, Bonthu Rammohan, are addressing public grievances.
According to water board officials, the short circuit resulted in motor repairs in over 10 reservoirs and all of them were defunct. Adding to the woes, the higher authorities sitting in the HMWSSB headquarters in Khairatabad have appointed an official to monitor about 10 divisions in the GHMC limits.
SURPRISINGLY, NONE of the board officials were willing to comment on the issue and the same goes with the public representatives. The officials were not even ready to disclose how many million gallons a day was supplied to the city.
Officials said that the 10 motors were defunct as the water board supplied drinking water with 50 per cent shortage. They said that the restoration of motors would take at least one week as they were not able to procure spare parts because of their shortage too.
HMWSSB officials also claimed that all the lower rung officials working in
10 divisions were put in home isolation as an employee died of Covid-19 last week.
Though officials have tried to hire contractual employees, they have boycotted work demanding higher wages as they were reluctant to work for
`7,000 a month. Besides this, officials claimed, none of the elected representatives have been turning up to attend the public grievances fearing Covid-19, though about 40 percent of population in Godavari basin is subjected to severe inconvenience.
Sharing his experience, Rajkumar said that though the water board has been supplying water through tankers every alternative day after stalling the Godavari water, it has been not meeting the demands of the residents. He said that the consumers have been forced to book a tanker to meet the domestic needs, even during the monsoon. “We have been paying `750 to `1,200 based on the demand. Though water board officials assured us they would restore the water supply, they failed to achieve the target in the last five days. Our situation would turn from bad to worse if water supply is stopped for another week,” he said.
“We have been suffering from acute water crisis since the month and the board has completely stalled water supply since five days. The residents in the area have already submitted three representations to the HMWSSB which did not provide any relief,” said Abhinav Trivedi. He said that the board has neither providing water tankers nor are they supplying water through any other source.
Reddy said that at times we have purchased 25 litres cans for `35 each to meet needs in emergency. Surprisingly, none of the board officials were willing to comment on the issue and the same goes with the public representatives.
The officials were not even ready to disclose how many million gallons a day was supplied to the city. The water board sources said that residents living in 12 peripheral municipalities were the silent sufferers. They have been not receiving water since 10 days.