Ahead of summer, Jalpally stares at water scarcity again

RANGAREDDY: Ahead of the summer season, the officials from Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) begin rinsing out water supply plans meant mainly for the urban local bodies (ULBs) on the city outskirts from where outcry over water scarcity remains an unending saga.

One among them is Jalpally municipality, also known as the most densely populated ULB in the entire Ranga Reddy district. This municipality on the city outskirts consists of 28 wards with over a lakh population and predominantly faces water scarcity. Out of a demand of over 12-15 lakh litresof water supply per day, this municipality is said to have been getting only 4-5 lakh litresof water per day that too ensures a supply once in 3-4 days.

According to a senior official from HMWSSB, the Jalpally municipality has a total number of 13,600 connections, out of which 4000 were given by the board while the remaining comes under Outer Ring Road (ORR) service.

"Out of a total seven water tanks from where the Krishna water is being supplied to the entire Jalpally municipality, only two were under construction at Pahadi Shareef and YerraKunta areas. With a 32 kilometres long supply line chain, the water is being supplied to almost all the served areas apart from few unserved areas," the official informed. Though the Jalpally area needs to receive adequate amount of water supply on par with its population, it is also lagging in timely collection of bills from the consumers,which is burning a hole in HMWSSB's pocket.

It is said that out of a total 13,600 connections in the entire municipality only 1600 consumers, which corresponds to merely 12 percent, paid their bills last month,which translates into a loss of revenue worth Rs.29-31 lakhs to the board every month. The monthly bill of Rs.242-260 is being charged by the board.

Apart from this, the number of connections in the municipality is reportedly much higher than the official figure as unauthorised connections keep on burning a hole in the board's pocket in Jalpally.

"We can't do much more than urging the people to pay their bills on time. Though 1600 consumers paid their bills inJanuary, only 1300 did so in December.

At least we saw some upward trend this time," the official informed.

Although the municipality was considered a fortunate enclave with a bunch of water bodies every few metres and an obscure historic anabranch called 'FirangyNala' interconnecting the lakes, most of them completely or partially disappeared due to encroachment.

Since the municipality is known as an abode for migrants from various states and surrounding districts, an array of issues like lack of basic amenities, and ever increasing crime rate due to extreme level of poverty is a regular social enigma haunting the Jalpally area under Maheshwaram constituency represented by Minister of Education P.Sabita Indra Reddy.