GHMC-installed water ATMs dysfunctional

Hyderabad: With an aim to provide pure drinking water to denizens, the Greater Hyderabad Municipality Corporation(GHMC) installed over 200 water ATMs across the city in 2017. These water ATMs have been providing clean drinking water to people at a very low price. However, most of these pure water vending machines have become dysfunctional due to non-maintenance causing inconvenience to people dependent water ATMs. 

The water ATM installed at Manikeswar Nagar (Vaddera Basti) near Osmania University has been not working for six months. The basthi residents here earn extra income by keeping students and job aspirants as paying guests. These students and job seekers prefer to buy water from the installed water kiosks instead of municipal water as there is no regular supply with fixed timing and it has to be stored. Now, these outsiders are facing huge inconvenience as the 20 ltr water cans or 1 ltr mineral water bottles are very costly.   

Narsamma, a resident, said that the students from various districts come here and prepare for exams. She said that the students are facing inconvenience in getting drinking water. “The machine installed at bus stop has not been functioning hence we are also forced to buy water cans from private firms with high price,”she added. Suresh Kumar, who is preparing for SI exams, said,“I have been staying in basthi for two years and used to drink GHMC tap water. After installation of ATM,we were happy to have safe drinking water, but what is the useas the machine has been not functional for the last six months. We continue to depend on GHMC tap water.” 

 The locals said that they filed a number of complaints to GHMC officials and corporator, but no one has turned up to resolve the issue. Sometimes the pure water filled in the storage tank of water ATM, remains there for days as the water dispensing mechanism fails. This in turn turns the water back to impure due to stagnation. 

BY Sheker Shivarathri