Citizens of Parched Hyderabad Shell out Lakhs on Private Tankers as Groundwater Level Falls Drastically

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Complaints of irregular water supply were rampant from across the city. As many receive water on alternate days, they have become dependent on water tankers, mainly private ones.

Hyderabad: Along with several parts of the country, Telangana is grappling with water scarcity. According to a report of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the groundwater table in Hyderabad and across the state has gone down rapidly as the extraction rate is high.

The capital city, which hasn’t received much rain since last year, draws 340% of the annual recharge volume, on an average. The areas that have been severely affected are in the western and northern parts of the metropolis that include the densely populated west Marredpally, Kukatpally, Jubilee Hills and Ameerpet, Quthbullapur, Bala Nagar, Kukatpally and Pragathi Nagar.

In Quthbullapur, the water table has reached 42.71m below the ground level, while in Medchal, it has dipped by 23.13m below the ground level and in Hasmatpet, the water level has dropped by 10.47m.

A resident of a housing society in Yakhutpura said lakhs were being spent annually to buy water for 4,000 families living in the complex. “There is no groundwater in our area and all the borewells have dried up. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board is also not doing enough and we have no option but to bring private water tankers,” the man said.

Complaints of irregular water supply were rampant from across the city. As many receive water on alternate days, they have become dependent on water tankers.

The water supply board charges Rs 500 for every 5,000 litre of tanker if booked online, private operators charge anywhere between Rs 1,250 and Rs 1,650. On an average, this has raised the expenses of most families in the capital by about Rs 4,000.

A resident of an apartment in Quthbullapur, Nannagaram Kamalakar, said, “Our bore well dried up last month and now, we are dependent on tankers. If we book a tanker from the Hyderabad water board, it turns up only after five days. The families living in our building are completely dependent on private tankers and are shelling out lakhs for water.”

“We have been taken steps to reduce wastage of water. We have also started rainwater harvesting on our premises, but we can get out of this crisis only when we receive some rain,” another local said.