HYDERABAD: As villagers within the vicinity of scour valve locations of drinking water pipelines of Godavari Drinking Water Supply Scheme Phase-I are resorting to opening of the valves and drawing water illegally into the tanks and wells, the drinking supply to Greater Hyderabad is under threat as they may cause damage to the vital installations of Godavari Scheme.
Since the partial commissioning of the Godavari project in November last, a few incidents have been reported regarding illegal opening of scour valve by villagers and drawing water unauthorisedly to the nearby tanks and wells and also causing damage to the valves and other appurtenances at such locations.
A fresh incident took place two days ago where the villagers with support of local political leaders opened the scour valve illegally at Eligedu-Narsapur village in Sultanabad mandal of Karimnagar district and diverted water into tanks and wells.
Under the Phase-1 of GDWSS, of the proposed 172 Million Gallons of water per Day (MGD), presently Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) is supplying 85-86 MGD to the twincities from Yellampally Barrage as source. GDWSP Phase-I project is constructed at a cost of Rs 3,375 crore. The project works were taken up in three packages
Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) has provided a loan of Rs 2,000 crore and balance amount was met from the State Government budget.
HMWS&SB officials told Express that under the scheme, the transmission pipeline is running from head works at Murmur in Karimnagar District to Master Balancing Reservoir (MBR) at Ghanpur in Rangareddy District and the pipeline installed with various appurtenances like line valves, air valves, anti vacuum valves and scour valves all along the alignment.
The field officers and agencies have informed to the senior officials of the Water Board that villagers within the vicinity of scour valve locations of pipeline are resorting to opening of the valves and drawing water illegally into the tanks and also causing damage to the valves and other appurtenances at such locations.
This is causing interruption in the transmission of water through the pipeline and leading to breakage and bursts which they feel was unwarranted. The HMWS&SB and the agencies concerned also filed FIRs with concerned police stations.
Due to drying up of Osmansagar, Himayatsagar, Singur and Manjira reservoirs, Godavari Phase-I water supply is to be maintained without any interruption to provide water supply in the city of Hyderabad apart from ensuring uninterrupted supplies to the tapping of Rural Water Supply (RWS) schemes like Gajwel, Pragnyapur, as such, it is necessary to prevent all pilferage of water by local villagers and also causing damage to the vital installations of Godavari Scheme of HMWS&SB.
The previous HMWS&SB Managing Director, B Janardhan Reddy last month requested Karimnagar District Collector to issue suitable instructions to the local district police authorities and Revenue Divisional Officers (RDOs) to take appropriate action to prevent the unauthorised drawl of water and also to safeguard the water supply infrastructure of HMWS&SB.