HYDERABAD: Of the allocated 120 million gallons of water per Day (MGD), 75 MGD used to be drawn from the Singur reservoir and 45 MGD from the Manjira reservoir. After a gap of nearly five years, Singur and Manjira reservoirs are now brimming nearly full.
Meanwhile, the metro water board has installed two more water-pumping motors at Yallampally (Godavari) to increase the water supplies from 56 MGD to 108-110 MGD.
The water in Singur and Manjira is now at comfortable levels thanks to the heavy rains in the catchment areas three months ago. The Singur reservoir has a total storage capacity of 29.917 tmcft water and the present storage is about 27.610 tmcft. It was an abysmal 0.875 tmcft on the same day last year. In the case of Manjira, the reservoir’s total capacity is 1.500 tmcft and the present storage is about 1.256 tmcft. It was zero tmcft on the same date last year.
HMWS&SB had been drawing the allocated water since September this year following a green signal from the government which has now shown the red flag.
HMWS&SB officials said that drawing Krishna river water from Akkampally (270 MGD in three phases) and Godavari water from Yellampally (171 MGD) has become quite expensive as it needs four-stage pumping which is costing the board ` 45 crore a month towards power bills. Yellampally is situated about 190 km and Akkampally 120 km away from Hyderabad. In comparison, Singur and Manjira reservoirs are some 80 km away from the city.
As such, 120 MGD water can be drawn through a single-stage pumping which brings down power consumption drastically.