Water Emergency In Hyderabad For The First Time In 30 Years

Hyderabad: There is a water emergency in Hyderabad, with four major reservoirs that supply drinking water to the capital city bone dry for the first time in 30 years, says Telangana’s minister for municipal administration KT Rama Rao.

Though the monsoon predictions this year are better than normal, The Metropolitan Water Board is gearing up to use emergency pumps to tap dead storage waters of Nagarjunasagar and Yellampally, the only available water sources for the city, beyond June 15 this year.

Water Board managing director Dana Kishore to DC on Monday said: “There is no problem till June 15 as of now, but beyond that we will have to adopt emergency plans to meet the drinking water needs of citizen.”

Rao, who is the son of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhara Rao and is also his minister in charge of Hyderabad, said that with the Singur, Manjeera, Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs dry, there is now a gap of 47 percent between demand for water and supply in the city, which touched a maximum temperature of 43 degree Celsius last week. “There just isn't enough water to go around,” the minister said, adding that distress sale of cattle by farmers and migration from parched villages to cities like Hyderabad, which are also running dry, are grave concerns for the government.

Rao further said that Hyderabad needs 660 million gallons of water every day, but the administration is able to supply it with only 335 million gallons. Water is being fetched from the Godavari and Krishna rivers, almost 200 km away, the minister said, pinning his hopes on the promise of an early and strong monsoon. The government has sanctioned 60 crore rupees for Hyderabad under municipal corporation and 70 crore rupees for the rest of Telangana to transport water to areas where scarcity is reported.

Currently, Telenghana is one 11 states which are under drought. The state has in its grip a staggering 33 crore people or about a fourth of India's population.