Hyderabad: The severe water crisis in the IT corridor is forcing techies to shift their families to other localities where the situation isn’t so bad.
The number of ‘To Let’ signs has been increasing in the last four months, thanks to the crisis. Several apartments have fallen vacant at Puppalaguda, Manikonda and Neknampur, which are gram panchayats. Even in the GHMC divisions in the IT corridor like Kondapur, Madhapur, Gachibowli and Raidurgam, water crisis is a major issue.
Nearly 3,000 apartment buildings in Puppal-guda, Manikonda and Neknampur localities have at least one vacant flat each. Puppalguda Village Develop-ment Committee joint secretary S. Prakash said that the crisis had started in January.
“Apartment committees and owners of independent houses used to collect additional maintenance to procure water through private tankers from April to June. This time it started in January. Now, the problem has peaked,” he said.
Although the Water Board has started supplying water to the gram panchayats, he said: “The supply does not meet the requirements of these localities. Most people are dependent on private water tankers.”
Mr K. Nageswara Rao, a software engineer from Manikonda, said that nearly a dozen of his colleagues had vacated their rented flats in the last three months due to lack of water. “Most of them have shifted to Chandanagar and Serilingampally.” Manikonda upasarpanch L. Nagesh said that they have never seen such a situation.
“Water board tankers are taking at least 10 days to supply water and locals have to depend on private operators. Earlier, residents at apartments used to spend upto Rs 2,000 per month towards maintenance. Now, they are spending up to Rs 3,000 for water,” he said.
RTI activist P. Suresh, who stays at Balaji Residency, Puppalaguda, said that no one had shown interest in a vacant flat in their apartment building for months due to the water crisis.
