Hyderabad: Despite a bountiful monsoon, the city is heading towards a water crisis in the summer with levels in the Krishna river basin depleting at an alarming pace. On Friday, water stood at 541 feet at Nagarjunasagar, and was depleting at the rate of a feet a week.
Out of the 465 million gallons supplied to the city daily, Hyderabad receives 190.62 MGD from Nagarjunasagar. The Water Board has decided to supply water from Manjira and Singur to conserve resources in the Krishna basin.
Board officials have written to the irrigation department to stop supply for irrigation and maintain minimum draw down levels in Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam. A high-level meeting would be held soon to discuss measures to overcome the crisis. If water is released for irrigation, emergency pumping will have to be started from February and the situation would worsen in summer.
Explaining why water was scarce despite the rain, a Water Board official said TS had not received Krishna water from Karnataka. He said there were no concerns over water from Sripada Yellampally in the Godavari basin. The official said the board was gearing up to take measures like getting emergency pumping stations ready.
Residents in Serilinga-mpally and Patancheru and parts of LB Nagar circle could face problems as the Mission Bhagiratha pipeline work is still going on. Sources said the supply in these areas cannot be supplemented with Godavari water as the ring main works from the balancing reservoir at Ghanpur was incomplete. Even though the pipeline work is completed, the Water Board would be able supply only partially to the area.
