HMWSSB makes emergency arrangements for pumping water

HYDERABAD, Telangana: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) has made an emergency arrangement to draw water from the dead storage level of the Nagarjuna Sagar and Yellampally reservoirs from April 15 and May 1, respectively. This is being done to meet the water demand.

The water stressed areas in the focus of HMWSSB will require 5.6 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water level in the next four months. In Nagarjuna Sagar, the total available water level is 136.47 tmcft, just 4.81 tmcft above the dead storage level.

Similarly, in Sripada Yellampally, the available water level is 7.71 tmcft, just 4.4 tmcft above the dead storage level. A water level of 3.33 tmcft will be required to meet the demand in the next four months.

Currently, 91 million litres of water is drawn from the Osman Sagar reservoir and 12.32 million litres from the Himayat Sagar reservoir. During May, the quantity of water being drawn can be increased by 40 million litres per day (MLD). 

HMWSSB is also drawing water from various other reservoirs. Cumulatively, it draws 2,559 MLD from Singur/Manjira, Krishna drinking water three phases, the Godavari drinking water phase-I, and the twin reservoirs. Of this, 1082.62 MLD water goes to the core city area, 1049.58 MLD to the peripheral circle, and 277.21 MLD to the urban local bodies within the outer ring road area.

Since the Mission Bhagiratha pipelines haven’t been completed, 149.47 MLD of water is also being provided to Gajwel, Alair-Bhongir, and Medchal. Recently, the tanker demand has spiked exponentially since the groundwater table has subsided, especially in the western and central part of the city, including Gachibowli, Madhapur, Manikonda, Kukatpally, Kondapur, Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills. Today, 644 tankers in the city are completing 6,600 trips per day.