Hyderabad: Several parts of the old city are experiencing a shortage of drinking water. This is causing severe inconvenience as many people who are observing fasts during the holy month of Ramzan. Many are also celebrating Bonalu. The water supply situation is unlikely to improve unless rains bring more inflows into Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs.
Normally, about 40 million gallons per day (MGD) is supplied from these two reservoirs to most parts of the old city. But the water has reached dead storage level in the two reservoirs and there is a 16 per cent deficit in rainfall in the catchment areas, which means there have been no significant inflows into the two reservoirs.
As a result, the Water Board has cut the supply of water from the normal 40 MGD per day to 23 MGD as on date, plunging the old city areas into a drinking water crisis. Though Water Board is diverting 9 MGD of Krishna water to the old city to offset the shortfall, there is still a shortage of nearly 10 MGD water every day. What has made  the situation worse, particularly in Division-3 and Division-4 areas in the old city, is the ongoing repair work to plug leakages in the Krishna pipeline near Toli Chowki.
“We are not getting proper supplies for the last 10 days in Navodaya Nagar, Ganga Nagar and Jiaguda. Water was last released for only 25 minutes at low pressure six days ago. This is the festival season.
It has been raining almost every day, but our taps are dry. If the government can’t supply water even in the rainy season, then god save this city,” said B. Krishna Reddy of Jiaguda.The situation is even worse in Nampally Goods Shed locality, Keshav Swamy Nagar and Mallanna Gudi, to name only a few of the other affected localities.
“We need more water in the fasting month of Ramzan. Though there has been a water shortage problem in our area throughout the summer, it has become worse now. Every time we approach the officials, complaining about no supply, the standard answer we get is that there is some leakage in the line and repairs are being made, or, that there was no supply to tail-end areas due to problems in pumping.
The Water Board should plan the supply in advance anticipating all these problems. There should be uninterrupted supply at least in  the festival seasons,” said Ather Moin of Nampally Goods Shed area.
P. Manohar Babu, the Water Board director (operations), confirmed to this correspondent that the shortage of water in the old city areas is due to non-availability of water in Osmansagar and Himayatsagar.
“Already 9 MGD Krishna water is being diverted to the old city and this has resulted in short supplies to other areas such as Kukatpally, Qutbullapur, parts of Secunderabad, Erragadda, and SR Nagar. We are working on other options to ensure regular supplies to all areas with whatever water is available.
But the situation will really improve only if the reservoirs get water,” he said. The Water Board chief general manager of (Transmission), Sundar Ram Reddy, said that while Singur has received nearly 1TMC water, the reservoirs of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar have not received any significant inflows.
“We are expecting inflows here as the soil in the catchment area is wet due to rains in the last one week. More rains in the next one week will definitely bring inflows,” he added.