With the water levels in reservoirs depleting fast, complaints over an acute scarcity of water are pouring in from almost all parts of Hyderabad city. Citizens say a large number of areas in the city are short of water now.
The Water Board has started pumping water from the Osmansagar reservoir. The situation will get worse if there is no rain, as reservoirs have to get the inflows by June 15.
“If there are no rains by June 15, we will have to install motors and start pumping water from dead storage levels of even Himayatsagar. Currently, we are pumping water using only one motor in Osmansagar,” said Water Board in-charge director (technical) Sundar Ram Reddy.
Water quality is not good at the dead storage level in both Osmansagar and Himayatsagar. The drawing of water from both reservoirs has declined considerably, and the shortage is being supplemented by diverting water from the Krishna River.
The total water available in the reservoirs of Osmansagar, Himayat-sagar, Singur, Manjira and Akkampally (Krishna) currently is 13.547 TMC, compared with 19.584 TMC last year.
The inequitable supply of water is a sore point with citizens, and the government has to redress the hiatus. “Some areas in Adikmet get daily supply and a majority of localities in the core area (Secunderabad and and Hyderabad) are given alternate day supply for two hours.
Then it is once in three days in a large number of peripheral areas and once a week in a number of colonies in surrounding municipalities,” points out Ms J. Sumitra, of Mehdipatnam.
“For the last 20 days, we have been getting water only once in six days. Earlier, we used to get supply for at least two hours on alternate days,” said Mr N.G. Swamy, of Tata Chary Colony, Hyderabad.