Hyderabad: Residents of the twin cities will have to pray that rain gods are merciful this monsoon as the supply of drinking water really does hinge on good weather and “healthy rainfall”, officials have said.
According to city authorities, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) will decide the daily drinking water quota in the twin cities based on the rainfall amount this year.
There are about nine lakh connections in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area and HMWSSB supplies about 390 million gallons of water a day, on alternate days. If citizens are to get drinking water daily, the HMWSSB will have to supply around 800 million gallons of water a day.
Additionally, the Water Board normally draws 516 MGD but at present it is drawing only 387 MGD. Generally, the Water Board draws 25 MGD from the Osmansagar and about 15 MGD from Himayathsagar, but at present it has stopped drawing drinking water from these two reservoirs keeping in view the summer requirement.
At present, Hyderabad’s Water Board is drawing 75 MGD from Singur, 30 MGD from Manjira, 226 MGD from Akkampally and 56 MGD from Sripada Yellampally. Currently, certain areas in the city are being provided water daily on a trial basis which official admit may not hold throughout the year.
Water Board managing director M. Dana Kishore told this newspaper that in view of the health conditions of the people living in the city’s slums, drinking water is being supplied on a trial basis to about 100 such locations in the city.
He said if the monsoon is good, drinking water will be supplied daily from September and in a phased manner to the entire city by December 2017. He said all precautionary measures have been taken to meet the summer demand for water and there will be no drinking water problem this summer in the entire city area if the rainfall is good.
