HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) has devised a plan to convert over 3,000 abandoned and defunct public handpumps and borewells into Rain Water Harvesting Structure (RWHS) pits during the 90-day special drive (October-December 2024).
The initiative would be launched to increase the groundwater table across GHMC limits. Through RWHS pits, the rainwater flowing waste on the open roads and seeping into sewage pipelines would be diverted.
In the recent summer season, the majority of the borewells dried up between January and June as the groundwater levels were depleted. Due to this, most of the water consumers depended on the water tankers. The Water Board even made two lakh water tanker trips per day to meet the water demand.
As per the available data, there are a total of 2,796 power borewells in the HMWSSB service area. Of them, 1,770 are functioning while 942 have become defunct and inoperative, and 82 of them have dried or collapsed. Similarly, of 3,070 hand borewells, 954 are in use, 1,717 are non-functional and 339 have dried or damaged.
Currently, around 20-25% of rainwater is absorbed into the ground and the rest is wasted through runoff. If every drop of rainwater is conserved for recharging the groundwater, the problem of drinking water shortage would not arise at all.
The dysfunctional motors installed at these borewells would be removed and the size of the pipes, previously used to pump out groundwater, would be reduced.
HMWSSB Managing Director K Ashok Reddy said the Water Board will adopt the mandatory provision of RWHS in houses that have tap connections.
The Water Board is also setting up additional RWHS pits to divert the rainwater, flowing on the roads and drains, into the pits. It would recharge the dried-up borewells.