Hyderabad: No upkeep of records by Water Board raises hackles of citizens

Hyderabad: As all the State and Central governments' departments and civic bodies maintain a helpline number and grievance cell to register and resolve the citizens' issues, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board (HMWS&SB) public grievance cell seems to be dysfunctional and not active since years as the board has not been maintaining a record of the number of grievances lodged through helpline number 155313 and HMWSSB mobile application since seven years.

Recently, there have been several cases in the slum areas of the city, where people complained of receiving poor quality drinking water effecting the health of many people. Though the residents complained about receiving polluted drinking water, no action was taken up by the Water Board officials as the residents did not receive any follow-up from the officials.

A city-based activist Robin Zaccheus filed an RTI application with the Water Board asking to provide information on year-wise breakup of the total number of grievances lodged in the HMWSSB mobile application and 155313 helpline number from January 2015 to April 14 2022. The activist also asked for details about the type and sub-type of complaints including the status of the complaints 'open, under process, closed, conditional closed.

In an RTI reply, the HMWSSB General Manager (IT) PIO stated, "The information sought for is seven years old which is not stored in the system because of nature and importance of information."

Speaking about the issue, Robin said, "The information sought through the RTI for data on public grievances received through the Mobile app and the helpline number for the past seven years is extremely significant to understand the growing number of issues pertaining to drinking water quality, water leakages, lack of water supply and much more important analysis that could have been used by the government to understand the most persistent areas in Hyderabad."

He further said that it is perhaps shocking to learn that the most important data is not maintained in the HMWSSB systems as they have stated "because of nature and importance of information", pointed Robin.

He lamented saying that this is an ambiguous response by HMWSSB General Manager (IT) and the PIO will be challenged through the appeal. The Water Board is responsible to keep transparency on public grievances and must clarify why such an important data is not maintained while the public has huge concerns on the quality of the drinking water supply, asks Robin.

While the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) also have a separate grievance cell and helpline number that maintains and provides an update to the complainants about their status of grievance category and shares information after resolving the problem, the HMWSSB has no such practice for doing the same being an important department in the city.

A resident from Krishna Nagar, Jubilee Hills, Manoj Kumar said, "Every government department has a grievance cell and a record of the number of complaints received, but why cannot the Water Board maintain the same? They are not maintaining the grievance information because they never resolve public issues."

He said that there are more than 100 complaints filed by the residents of Krishna Nagar relating to sewage water overflowing on streets and getting mixed with drinking water, but not a single time had the officials inspected or resolved the issue, rued Manoj.