Hyderabad: Water watchdog wastes water

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) do not practise what they preach. The water board, which recently decided to penalise citizens for wasting water, has been doing just that in its office in Quthbullapur circle.

Datha Sai, a resident of Quthbullapur said that officials working in the GHMC circle have not bothered to divert rainwater into the water harvesting pits on the office premises. He said the matter has been brought to the notice of the deputy commissioner but he has yet to respond.

The HMWS&SB has embarked on a water conservation programme where officials mark orange, green and red blots according to the use of water.

Through this initiative the water board expects to conserve more than 50 million gallons of water a day.

The water board will mark orange if water is let out on to the city roads, or used to wash cars. It has decided to give green blot for constructing rainwater harvesting pits. For repeated violators, red blot would be given which will also lead to disconnection of services.

When the water wastage issue in the Quthbullapur circle office came to the notice of Municipal Adminis-tration and Urban Development principal secretary Arvind Kumar, he directed officials to resolve it immediately. Reacting to his instructions, the GHMC commissioner, who is also in charge of HMWS&SB, told the officials to arrest the leakage and water board officials to co-ordinate.