Part of city heading to water shortage

Even as the city is in the tight grip of scare unleashed by the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic, at least a part of the city is heading towards another major crisis — an acute shortage of drinking water. This is because the TRS government has rejected the proposal of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), requesting the government to allocate Singur / Manjeera (S-M) water to the city. The K. Chandrashekar Rao-led government has made it emphatically clear that supply of drinking water from Singur/ Manjeera to the city would be stopped permanently and would be compensated with water sources from Godavari.

About 20 per cent of the citizens who come under the S-M catchment area, including Serilingampally, Rajendranagar, Kukatpally and others, would suffer acute water crisis during summer because of this stand of the state government.

Till recently, the S-M reservoir has been fulfilling drinking water needs of around 40 per cent of the city’s population. The 120 million gallons per day (MGD) regular supply from the S-M reservoir was cut down to 57 MGD for the past one-and-a-half year, and subsequently, due to poor monsoon, drinking water supply from this source has been stopped completely.

However, authorities on paper claimed that the shortfall of 57 MGD supply from Manjeera and Singur is being met through 35

MGD from Godavari and 17 MGD from Osmansagar and Himayathsagar. Surprisingly, the current year water levels in the twin reservoirs are dropping at an alarming pace and the HMWSSB has been using it sparingly.

Against this backdrop, HMWS&SB officials reached out to the state government to release water from S-M reservoir since to reduce the burden of electricity charges and load on Godavari water supply, since it would not be possible to meet all of the demand with only

Godavari water source during peak summer.

Water board officials even took the issue to notice of government during the recently concluded Assembly session. However, the government ruled out the idea and said the water board must make alternative arrangements, even if difficult.

The board, during the previous year, had said that it would ensure sufficient water supply to the affected areas by setting up 20 additional water filling stations, which would hardly make much impact.