With the heatwave continuing unabated, Hyderabad along with many other parts of Telangana is facing one of the worst drinking water crisis in the recent history as all the major sources of water supply for the city have dried up.
Along with the historic Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar in the vicinity of the city, the reservoirs across Singur and Manjira rivers have also dried to the bone and the State Minister for municipal administration K Taraka Rama Rao has termed the situation as the worst crisis in nearly three decades.
Though drinking water shortage is not a new problem for Hyderabad where the citizens get tap water only on alternate days, this is the first time that the shortages have gone up to almost 50 per cent. The woes of the people have worsened due to the fact that the city was in the grip of unprecedented heatwave in the month of April and the worst part of the summer was still ahead. With the levels of ground water plummeting and the bore wells also drying up the residents of multi storied complexes were now completely at the mercy of the water tankers.
Against a demand of 660 million gallon water, the availability had come down to 335 million gallons of water.
Concerned over the worsening situation Rama Rao, who is son of the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a high level review meeting with the officials and discussed the 100 day plan chalked out by the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board. He urged the people to exercise utmost care and avoid the water of water as the city was facing grave crisis.
Now the city was completely dependent on piped water supply from Krishna and Godavari rivers. The water of these two major rivers was reaching Hyderabad through a giant pipelines from a distance of 200 kms.
Rao expressed hope that through effective planning and rationing waters from Krishna and Godavari could be sufficient to meet the need during the summer.
He directed the officials not to issue permission for new residential buildings and houses without digging rain water harvesting pits to conserve the rain water.
He wanted similar measures to be taken in the IT Parks, industrial estates, private and Government offices.