HYDERABAD: With one of the longest summers the region has seen, this year has left many parched borewells and dried taps in its wake.
One of its victims was Secunderabad’s famous Jubilee Bus Station whose two main borewells ran dry in May 2019, forcing the authorities to buy water tankers from the Cantonment board. Yet, the fact remains, one of city’s three main bus stations has ran out of water every single day of June.
The station has gone from needing 30 tankers for entire summer last year to 20 tankers per day this year, said Uma Shankar M, a JBS official. The cash-strapped corporation is now spending nearly 1.4 lakh per bus stand, only on water.
Meanwhile, it is the commuters who are worst hit. “We arrived in the morning at 8 am but could not use the toilets as they were too dirty. There was not a drop of water for us to even freshen up,” rued Abhishek, a passenger.
Located in West Marredpally where the groundwater has fallen to dangerously low levels, even a new borewell may not be a long term solution for JBS. Senior officials are even unsure if rainwater harvesting pits will come up at the bus station.