Hyderabad: Water in the Yellampally Reservoir on Godavari river and the Nagarjuna Sagar dam on Krishna river will be sufficient to meet Hyderabad’s drinking water needs for the entire summer season.
There is 14 TMC feet of water in the Yellampally Reservoir, one of the principal sources of drinking water for Hyderabad, from which presently 114 MGD (million gallons per day) is being drawn against 172 MGD capacity.
Similarly, Krishna River Management Board has allotted two TMC feet of water for the city's drinking water needs from Nagarjuna Sagar and is likely to release more.
“We are drawing 240 MGD against the full capacity of 270 MGD from Najarjuna Sagar dam; we may increase it to full capacity in the coming days depending upon the demand,” said Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Board (HMWB) managing director, Dana Kishore.
Though Nagarjuna Sagar’s present level is 510 ft, which is also the Minimum Draw Down Level (MDDL), it was decided to maintain the same level through supplies from upstream Srisailam Dam where the present level is 811 ft.
According to Nagarjuna Sagar chief engineer Mr Sunil, both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh have agreed to draw 13 TMC ft of water from Srisailam for use in both states to meet the water demand. “We will maintain the level at 510 ft so that HMWB has no difficulty in arranging more pumps to lift the water. But we have already alerted the Board to prepare for emergency operations if levels goes below 505 ft,” Mr Sunil said. Mr Kishore said last year arrangements were made for emergency pumping by installing high-end pumps inside the main reservoir.
“We had to remove all of them last monsoon. Now, we want to reinstall them and we are thinking of making the emergency pumping permanent, without removing it during the flood season.”
