Hyderabad: No water woes this summer in Old City

Charminar: Water scarcity looms large on the city every summer amidst rising, scorching temperatures. However, there are no signs of water stress this time, thanks to the excessive rainfall last year.

Last year this time, the thirsty voices echoed fervently from different quarters over acute shortage of water, prompting the staff Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) to be on their toes to rush to problematic areas and meet the public need.

There are around 60,700 household connections in Old City under O&M Division-1 that covers areas of Charminar, Bahadurpura and part of Malakpet and Rajendernagar constituencies. They need as much as 27 million gallons per day (MGD) every day. As far as the free water scheme is concerned, as many as 7,400 domestic slum connections are directly befitting under this scheme. April 30 has been fixed as last date to link Aadhaar cards with the CAN numbers and fix their own metres.

Explaining that fixing meters is compulsory for domestic consumers, an officer said only domestic slum consumers have exemption from fixing meters. Linking CAN numbers with Aadhaar card is enough for them. "Presently, we are receiving around 27 MGD. While Himayat Sagar assures 11.5 MGD and the Krishna ensures almost 13.5 MGD a day to the Mir Alamfilter from where the water is supplied across Old City," informed Khader Mohiuddin, General Manager (Div-I), HMWS&SB."We are facing no shortage issues anywhere in the operational area. If we ever find any shortfall we will overcome by reinstating tanker supply to the area," he added.

Officials say at least 75 percent of areas under Charminar and Bahadurpura get water supply from Mir Alam filter while Aliabad filter provides 20 per cent areas supply, andremaining 5 per cent areas are catered to by Chanchalguda and Shastripuram reservoirs.

Until last year only 5 MGD was received from Himayat Sagar through gravity, while the remaining was pumped from Krishna river. The five hill lock areas in South Zone namely, Owaisi Hills, Vattepally, Jahanuma, Ansari Road and Acchi Reddy Nagar receive water supply by pumping process. However, all the other areas get the gravitational supply owing to their geologically flat position.

"There would be no shortage of water this year as we have already passed half of the summer season without much ado. If any water shortage situation arises, the board is having enough supplies to fix the issue and satiate the demand," affirmed Khader Mohiuddin.