The city is facing short supply of drinking water to the extent of five million gallons per day (MGD), the effect of which is being borne by residents of Serilingampally and Rajendranagar.
As a result, about 10,000 connections in these areas are being affected, with water supply limited to only once in three days.
Managing director of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board M. Dana Kishore shared this at a press conference on Tuesday, and said the Board is making all-out efforts to fill this gap through various means.
Saving grace
The situation could have been worse had it not been for completion of the Ring Main from Godavari river, from where the city is now drawing 32 MGD of drinking water, he said. Mr. Dana Kishore attributed the shortage to lack of supplies from Singur and Manjeera reservoirs, from where 57 MGD of water was being drawn earlier. In place of 423 MGD supplied earlier, the city is drawing 418 MGD.
Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs are also contributing 17 MGD to fill the gap, and efforts will be made to purify and pump more water from there, he said. “We are planning to set up two modular water treatment plants to treat raw water from Gandipet and pump it to Rajendranagar to combat the water shortage there,” he said.
Tanker filling stations
To provide enough water to meet the city’s needs, orders have been issued for establishment of 20 more filling stations for water tankers, in addition to the existing 70. The additional filling stations will be set up in Rajendranagar, Serilingampally and Kukatpally.
Another shift will be added to the existing two in which the filling stations would function, making the supply through tankers a round-the-clock service.
Orders have also been issued to commission 100 more private tankers in addition to the existing 525 within one week, which will supply water at the rates fixed by the water board — ₹500 for five kilolitres, and ₹1,000 for 10 kilolitres for domestic consumption and ₹850 for five KL and ₹1,700 for 10 KL for commercial.
Of these, 50 will be deployed solely for Serilingampally, while 10 to 12 will go to Asif Nagar in Karwan, where water shortage is acute. All the tanker operators within the Outer Ring Road have been asked to register with the water board, so that they may draw water from the filling stations instead of pumping the bore-wells dry.
Supply through 600 tankers free of cost to various localities will be extended by six months. Supply to certain liquor manufacturing units and Defence establishments has been stopped ito be able to quench the city’s thirst, Mr. Dana Kishore said.
Special officers are being deployed to inspect critical areas needing higher capacities of pumping, so that required measures may be taken, he said.
