Water was never more precious.With the city sitting on water supplies for not more than two months,even a healthy monsoon may not be able to save Hyderabad from its driest spell of the decade
Sudipta Sengupta & Sunil Mungara | TNN
Hi-Tech Hyderabad might soon have to invoke the rain gods for its next glass of water.The city has water stock for another 60 days follow ing which Hyderabad will slip into an acute drought,warn ground water offi cials The city is already reeling under an alarming 26 per cent drinking water deficit and a severely receded water-table.Its only hope now is a boun tiful monsoon.
A quick scan of some residential pockets across Hyderabad indeed paints a dehydrated picture.Not only have more than 50 per cent of bore-wells in the city already dried up,thanks to meager showers last year,but even Manjeera (drinking water) supplies have thinned drasti cally post the onset of summer.As against the regular two-hour schedule,the water board has now restricted its water supplies to just about half an hour every alternate day in most parts of Hyderabad.Chances are that this time span will be further shortened if water levels in the citys reservoirs do not improve soon.
That the already grave water crisis is only headed southwards is also obvious from the groundwater departments new ruling intro duced this year.The department has issued a complete ban on the drilling of bore-wells for all purposes apart from drinking.
Latest statistics on Hyderabads depleted water wealth points to this rude reality.The ca pacity of Osmansagar and Himayathsagar,the citys two primary drinking water sources,are abysmal.The full tank levels of both these res ervoirs,owing to a 20 per cent drop in rainfall last season,have dropped signifi cantly over the last few months with water board offi cials fear ing a near-dry situation soon.Considering that a whopping 70 per cent of Hyderabads populace depends on the inflow from here,an unhealthy monsoon is bound to spell doom for an already p a rch e d c i t y T h o u g h marginal the Krish na water too has witnessed a recession in its level thus adding to the miseries of the aam aadmi Roughly 30 per cent of denizens,largely resid ing in the peripheral areas,draw their daily drinking water supplies from Krishna,phase-I and II.The water from the Manjeera and Singur reservoirs that also contribute towards APs total requirement are largely diverted towards rural water supplies.While a drop in levels here might not be of immediate concern to Hy derabadis,the fact that the citys ground water depth too has slipped by an additional two me tres (in comparison to last year) this year is defi nitely worrisome.As per records available with the state ground water department,the water in the city has now depleted to a startling 9.63 me tres.The last time the table had receded beyond the 10 metre mark (the height equivalent to a three-storied building) was during the drought ridden period between 2003 and 2005.
The supply has predictably been unable to meet the growing demand.In 2011,the demand for water qas 459 mgd and 469 mgd in 2012 but the water board has been able to supply just about 340 mgd of wa ter since 2008.In 2013,the demand for water is ex pected to be 480 mgd.Ac cording to water board records,around 1.75 lakh custom ers who were getting water on a daily basis are now getting it on alternate days.Although the water board is supplying water for one hour,its barely a trickle in some city households.
That a chunk of the citys 87.5 lakh popula tion has resorted to packaged water this sum mer,therefore,comes as no surprise.Right from the near-dry Marredepally colonies to the nar row bylanes of the Old City to even the plush residential pockets of Jubilee Hills,Hydera badis are spending thousands of rupees every month to supplement this acute water shortage which many claim is worse than what they have seen in the past fi ve years.
Most pockets in the area (including Road No 36,10,40,41 among others) have no supply of Manjeera water, said B S Srinivasan,treasurer of the Jubilee Hills Residents Welfare Association pointing out how residents here are entirely dependent on bottled water for domestic usage.The situation is much the same at Alwal where denizens rue a poor supply once in three days.The unregulated exploitation of ground water,rampant in this area,has only made matters worse,they add.We have no choice but to completely rely on tankers now, said G V Rao,secretary of the Greater Alwal Allied Service Association that has around 29 colonies registered with it.Such grouses are voiced by Hyderabadis living even in areas such as Karkhana,Tarnaka,Kondapur,Begumpet or even far-flung Yapral.Plagued by a scanty alternate day water supply,residents from these localities complain how a hefty sum of their monthly budget is now being diverted towards quenching their thirst.Even our monthly maintenance cost for the apartment has gone up from Rs 700 to Rs 1,500 be cause of this, said Aju Thomas,a resident of Yapral.
While the locals of New Vasavi Nagar (in Karkhana) are trying hard to seek government permission to dig a few more bore-wells in the area,the exercise could well be futile.This,as the receded water table has made scarce the availability of ground water up to 1,200 feet.Until now,water in the city was not more than 500 feet below the earth.Most of the existing bore-wells here have dried up.Unless new ones are dug,its going to be a tough summer for us, said Karun Kumar,president of the colonys welfare association.
In the districts of Andhra Pradesh too the water story is much the same.Poor rains coupled with soaring mercury levels have led to the drying up of all water sources.Ground water levels in several pockets have crossed the 75 feet mark with officials of the department speculating a further dip over the next few weeks.In fact water is available at 75 feet only at select points.In most areas even after 300 feet there is no water, said a senior official of the rural water supplies wing referring to parts of Guntur district.
While experts suggest the setting up of recharge pits as a viable solution to this problem,they maintain that containing the misuse of ground water is the fi rst step towards addressing this shortage.The continuous exploitation is not allowing water levels to rise.Considering that only 2.5 per cent of the earth (largely granite) we are sitting on can hold water,such excessive use is bound to create a severe demand-supply gap, R Rangarajan,scientist with the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI),Hyderabad.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) admits that the situation is grave but feels it is too early to ring the alarm bell.While the consistent fall in the levels of the Hyderabads two major reservoirs is a matter of concern,officials feel that the forthcoming monsoon will address the issue.We are worried about the Himayathsagar and Osmansagar levels.But I think we can meet the 340 mgd demand of the city for the next two months with what is available.After that the reservoirs will get recharged with the rains, said Adhar Sinha,managing director,HMWS&SB.
(
W i t h i n p u t s f r o m M N S a m d a n i
)
WHAT THE WATER CRISIS MEANS TO YOU
THE WATER BOARD IS FACED WITH A SHORTAGE OF 10 TO 15 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER A DAY.ACCORDING TO V VISHWESWARAIAH,CHIEF GENERAL MANAGER (TRANSMISSION),SOME HARSH STEPS WILL BE TAKEN TO TACKLE THE WATER SHORTAGE IN THE COMING MONTHS: Areas getting water supply on alternate days will get it once in three days if the water crisis worsens Water supply to the industrial sector will be dropped to 60 per cent (of the total demand) In case there is no rainfall between June and August and no further inflows into Osmansagar and Himayathsagar,one to two mgd of water will be cut in each division (from the allotted quantity).Water board supplies water in 17 operation and maintenance divisions in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and surrounding GHMC circles.There will be no extra water supply to the surrounding villages of Medak,Ranga Reddy,Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda under Rural Water Supply (RWS) schemes.Currently,water board supplies water to these villages from Krishna drinking water supply phase-I and II.Tankers will be hired from private parties to supply water,in case of severe shortage
PIT FALL: Even the wells in Hyderabad have dried up this summer and depend on imported water.Seen in this picture is a well being filled with tanker water which is then pumped into apartments