Hyderabad: The main cause of polluted water being supplied to many bulk users has been the insufficient number of chlorine plants in storage tanks. A majority of large housing quarters like Railways, RTC and ESI have been receiving polluted water because the concerned management has not been chlorinating the water.
These are among the bulk consumers of the HMWS&SB who buy thousands of litres of water every day and store it in their tank. There are, however, no chlorination plants in these tanks. Though the water supplied by the board is chlorinated, the mass consumers tend to store it for days in the tanks. The water again needs a chlorination plant. The recent contamination incident at the Secunderabad Railway quarters was found to be due to lack of chlorination.
Among the major bulk consumers of the metro water board are the Army, Railways and Secunderabad Cantonment Board. The board has hundreds of mini bulk consumers also like Ordinance Factory, BHEL, Icrisat Hyderabad, gated communities and bank colonies. The bulk consumers buy water from the board, store it in their reservoirs and then supply this to their residents.
Mr Vijay Reddy, an officer from water Transmission department – HMWS&SB, said, “Colonies or quarters that receive and supply water the same day, need not chlorinate. But, bulk consumers, who store water for two-three days before supplying need to chlorinate. This is called booster chlorination. When chlorinated water is stored for more than 25 hours, the chlorine evaporates. Chlorine will have to be added to boost it. By this, the chemical will kill the freshly formed bacteria.”.
The officer said the board begins with pre-chlorination involving the addition of the chemical at the entry level. After filtration, chlorine is again added as post chlorination process. Booster chlorination or addition of chemical is done before supplying.
