Hyderabad: Around 3,000 water tankers were booked over the last three days and the Water Board has cleared all pending bookings by working round-the-clock. The advice and awareness campaigns on water conservation literally went down the drain on Wednesday as thousands of gallons of water were used for rain dances and Holi celebrations.
Rain dance parties were held at Chiran Fort Club, Park Exotica Recreation Garden at Rajendran Nagar, Summer Green Resorts, Sayole Café, Ayyappa Society gated communities in Sanath Nagar, Ameerpet, and at several places in Begum Bazar. Despite observance of World Water Day on March 22, banners and posters advertising big Holi parties were put up across the city. Water Board tankers meant for domestic use at Rs 400 were used for the celebrations.
K.V. Srinubabu of Sri Sai Nagar Colony, RC Puram, said, “We are getting only 30 to 40 litres of drinking water once in three days, and are surviving with difficulty.” Vivek Varma of Dharmapuri Colony, Uppal Kalan, said, “We used to get one-hour supply with full pressure but now we hardly get 10 minutes of water without pressure that just fills two buckets. How can revelers use precious drinking water for Holi celebrations?” DC reader Harini Ganti added, “Even gated communities like Serene County are struggling for water. There are no tankers.”
Water Board revenue director PS Suryanarayana said that from March 16, there was supply disturbances due to repairs on the Godavari pipeline. Following this, over 5,000 bookings had piled up. On March 23, MD B. Janardhan Reddy ordered that the pendency cleared in three days. Out of the 70 filling stations, 60 per cent are running 24 hours, he said Water leakage was reported at Arul colony, AS Rao Nagar, Venkatagiri Colony and Trimulgherry, By the time the leakage was reported and board officials moved in, hundreds of litres of water had been wasted.
