Hyderabad: A Water Board vigilance team seized illegal water motors in Begumpet and Methodist Colony during the morning supply hours. Residents in apartments and independent houses had installed power motors to draw extra water.
Residents connect mobile pumps to the pipeline and draw excess water and remove them when the supply ends. Colonies that have no borewells and depend on private water tankers use drinking water for various other purposes. The Board is registering criminal cases on illegal tap connections, but there is no check on consumers setting up such pumps.
N. Durga of Begumpet said, “When we complained to the water works department supervisor, the response was unprofessional. He said that we too can use power motors to draw water if we need.”
V. Balakrishna, of Masab Tank, said, “Most of the residents of certain colonies in Masab Tank are using illegal pumps to draw water from the Manjeera pipeline, which has a 4.5-inch main distribution pipe, thus affecting the pressure of supply. Residents downstream get less water. Also, People have started using pumps even in broad daylight.”
“No one comes for a surprise visit. The area in-charge is cooperating with these residents,” added K. Rakesh of Sri Chakripuram Colony, Kushaiguda, Kapra division.
Explaining another scam, an official of the Wat-er Board operations and maintenance wing said that certain residents take water connections illegally from the pipelines with the help of plumbers.
Others apply for connection by paying the processing fee but take an illegal connection. These are offences under the IPC, and the plumbers are liable as well.
The applicant has to pay the required connection charges estimated by the HMWS&SB and the connection has to be given by the Green Brigade contractor of the Board and obtain Consumer Account Number. Elsewhere, officials detected an illegal water connection at Rajendranagar and a criminal case has been registered under Sections 269 and 430 of IPC against Gurupreet Singh of Sikh Chawani. The offence carries a maximum of five years in prison besides a fine. Illegal connections can be regularised by approaching the section managers, DGMs or GMs.
City in urgent need of local water reservoirs
The city does not have sufficient number of reservoirs, because of which the Water Board is having to constantly draw limited quantities of water every day to serve the city.
If more reservoirs are built, more water can be stored in the city and areas receiving supply once in seven to 10 days will receive water more frequently. Besides, water supply timings could improve. Shapurnagar, Borabanda, Sanathnagar, Hussainsagar pumphouse need storage tanks immediately; they get water once in 10 days due to the lack of storage tanks.
Officials in the Water Board said that to better utilise water from Krishna Phase 3 and Godavari Phase 1, reservoirs, feeder lines and junction works have to be built. The board has 120 reservoirs in the core city and 57 in the merged municipalities.
The demand is to have storage tanks with capacity of 250 million litres (ML) per day in Hyderabad and 260 ML in the surrounding municipalities.
Currently, the core city is depending on tanks of 396 ML per day, a board officer said.
From the Krishna Phase 3, 45 MGD is being pumped into the city since June. Another 45 MGD will be available from October. This water needs to be stored in the city, the officer said.
“Building more storage areas will support the Krishna and Godavari schemes. With reservoirs, we can store water overnight and supply it in the morning and the gap between supply days will decrease,” he added.
The board uses source reservoirs at Singur, Manjeera, Osmansagar, Himayatsagar to draw raw water, treat it and pump to the city. The board also has local reservoirs of two types — ground level service reservoirs and elevated service reservoir.
