Hyderabad: Shaikpet in Serilingampally, where there are many corporate houses located, receives water once in 10 days. This is not because of scarcity but because the reservoir at Shaikpet has been lying idle for five years. Since there are no storage tanks in the area, parts of Serilingampally constituency receive very irregular supplies of water.
Mr Shiva of Ambedkar-nagar, Shaikpet, said he had not received water for more than 10 days. "I have complained to the divisional office and the officers say that they cannot help it as there is no storage tank. I am residing adjacent to the idle Shaikpet reservoir."
MIM leader Akbarud-din Owaisi told the Assembly last week: "Many localities in the south zone face water scarcity, even after commissioning of Krishna phase III and Godavari projects. The irregular supply has increased after withdrawal from Singur, Manjira, Osman-sagar and Himayatsagar has been stopped by he government. The reservoir at Shaikpet has been kept idle for more than five years. The reservoir in Banjara Hills has become very old. New reservoirs are to be taken up in places of existing old ones in the city."
He added that in this situation it is surprising that the Water Board had proposed expansion of service area into surrounding municipalities. “The Board has formed new operation and maintenance divisions at Manikonda, Beerappa-gada and Sahebnagar for supplying water to Rajendra Nagar, RC Puram, Patancher,u Qutbullapur, Medchal, Shamshabad, Mahesh-waram, Ibrahimpatnam, Saroornagar, Hayat-nagar, Badangpet and Peddamberpet.
Municipal administration minister K.T. Rama Rao had announced water supply coverage to these municipalities under the 100-day programme earlier. "It is highly objectionable to give water to surrounding municipalities until rains arrive and source augmentation takes place. The board shall not reduce the water allocated to old city areas for impressing new areas,” he had said.
To this, Water Board officers in the water transmission department said, “Due to technical issues the reservoir has been kept idle. Several trial runs need to be conducted before it is commissioned. With regard to the irregular supply, the board is using old pipelines laid by the gram panchayat which are small in diameter, and thus it takes more than a week to repeat the supply to an area. Works related to the reservoirs will be speeded up.”
