Though the water available in the reservoirs presently is far less in quantity compared to the same day last year, it will be sufficient to supply 340 million gallons of water per day to the city if the officials of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board are to be believed. As much as 21 TMC of water per year is required to ensure that the city's requirement of 340 MGD per day is fulfilled. The Osmansagar, Himayatsagar, Singur and Manjira put together presently have 13.835 TMC of water, and another 11 TMC of assured water from Nagarjunasagar through Krishna Phase-I and Phase-II takes the total to over 24 TMC of water.
Of the 11 TMC available in Singur and Manjira, the assured supplies to the city are 7 TMC. Even if 4 TMC from Singur and Manjira are set aside for irrigation and other purposes, the total available water in the reservoirs is 20-odd TMC. "We can continue to supply 340 MGD per day to the city up to the next monsoon with the available 20 TMC. However, we are hoping that the reservoirs will receive good inflows in August and September, the two months when its catchments have traditionally been receiving heavy rainfall. But if there are no inflows, the present levels of water in reservoirs would be able to manage to cater to city water needs up to next monsoon although the situation may not be that comfortable," HMWS&SB in-charge director (Technical) Sundar Ram Reddy told this correspondent.
Though the recent heavy rains have brought inflows into the reservoirs, they were not up to the desired levels. For example, the total water available in the reservoirs on the same day last year was 21.357 tmc, only 13.835 tmc of water is available presently.