New Delhi: While several parts of Hyderabad and its surrounding areas have received torrential rainfall for the past few days, the main reservoirs that provide water to the city have not received any inflow. This has left officials feeling concerned that the reservoirs may dry up in the next month, leaving a massive gap in the water supply system to Telangana’s capital city.
The Osmansagar, Himayatsagar, Singur and Manjira reservoirs are major sources of drinking and domestic water for areas under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and other villages around the city. Despite the city recording record-levels of rainfall for September, leaving several residential areas inundated, these reservoirs have not received any water inflow yet.
Officials of the Hyderabad Meteo Waster and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) have flagged the encroachment of the reservoirs’ catchment areas as a possible reason for the absence of water inflow.
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HMWSSB officials told the New Indian Express that the water level in Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs has not increased “even by an inch” over the past ten days. These reservoirs supply 25 and 15 million gallons per day (MGD) of water respectively.
The water level in the reservoirs was already low, forcing supply to be cut by half. “Though monsoon has been bountiful in different districts of the state, the catchment areas of these crucial reservoirs have not received enough rains,’’ officials told the newspaper. The officials said that even if the catchment areas do receive rainfall, illegal encroachments and constructions could prevent the reservoirs from receiving any inflow.
“The state government has failed to initiate any action against illegal encroachments,” officials told the New Indian Express.
After the Singur and Manjira reservoirs which supplied water to Ramachandrapuram and Patencheru municipalities and surrounding villages dried up last year, the Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs also face a similar fate. The HMWSSB estimates that these reservoirs could dry up in the next month.
However, the Nagarjunasagar and Yellampally reservoirs, which receive water from the Krishna and Godavari rivers respectively, have reached their full capacities, according to reports. This will not be enough to meet all of Hyderabad’s water demand and the prospect of Osmansgar and Himayatsagar reservoirs drying up could leave a supply gap of 30 MGD of water.
A 100-year legacy
The Osmansagar and Himayatsagar were sanctioned by the Nizams, erstwhile rulers of the Hyderabad state, to prevent flooding and provide water to the capital city and its surrounding areas. While Osmansagar was inaugurated in 1920, the Himayatsagar reservoir was built in 1927.
According to The News Minute, the storage capacity of both reservoirs at the time of construction was about 4 TMC (thousand million cubic feet). Osmansagar was spread over 22 sq km while Himayatsagar over 21 sq km.
The reservoirs supplied sufficient water to the residents of Hyderabad until the early 2000s, when increasing encroachment and proposals to develop real estate around the area have disrupted their efficiency and viability. The encroachments have not just disrupted the flow of water into these reservoirs, but also in a reduction of their storage capacity.
The state government also began to depend increasingly on water from the Krishan and Godavari rivers to provide water to Hyderabad, reducing the significance of several reservoirs. Activists have expressed concern over the viability of drawing water from these rivers.
“[The government is] not taking into account that the flow in the river Krishna has been coming down each year and water levels in the Nagarjunasagar dam are depleting further annually,” K. Purushotham Reddy, an activist and former Osmania University professor, told The News Minute.