In just a week’s time, between May 7 and May 13, citizens have lodged 145 complaints of water pollution with the customer care centre of the Water Board. Delayed and scarce supply of water during summer is a common complaint. The complaints have come from even the upmarket Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Himayatnagar, Khairatabad and Punjagutta.
The reason for water pollution complaints pouring in almost every day owes to around old 1,000-km of drinking water pipelines which are prone to contamination. M. Padmanabha Reddy, secretary of the Forum, for Good Governance says that unless these old pipelines are changed, people will continue to fall sick due to contamination of water. “The state government, Water Board and GHMC should find a way to fund the project for replacement of old pipelines,” he said.
The Water Board has a scheme to replace leaking and old pipelines within a house at a cost of Rs 2,500, but this has not yielded the desired results. Water Board says pipelines in 100-odd kms have been replaced with new ones. Citizens can lodge complaints and interact over telephone with Water Board MD Adhar Sinha during the “Dial Your MD” programme from 6 pm to 6.30 pm on Saturday. Consumers can contact Mr Sinha on the following phone nos. 040-66752212, 66752213 and 66752214.