HYDERABAD: Safe drinking water in Hyderabad is losing its safety in the last few metres of its journey. A new study has found that water reaching homes through municipal taps is generally safe but often becomes contaminated during household storage, exposing families to waterborne diseases.
Intermittent water supply forces thousands of households to store water for days. While this ensures availability when taps run dry, unsafe handling, prolonged storage and poor hygiene practices frequently contaminate otherwise safe drinking water.
The study, Source to Glass: Water Quality Risks in Hyderabad’s Low-Income Settlements, found that municipal tap water largely met drinking water quality standards. However, stored household water often contained faecal coliform bacteria and opportunistic pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, indicating contamination occurred after collection rather than at the source.
The findings highlight a major gap in urban water management: supplying treated water alone is not enough if it becomes unsafe before consumption.
According to the study, nearly 90% of Hyderabad is covered by the municipal water network, but only about 70% of residents receive piped water. In peripheral areas, network coverage drops to around 65%, serving only 40% of the population. Water is typically supplied for only a few hours on alternate days, making household storage unavoidable.
Researchers found that 73% of households drew water directly from storage containers using their bare hands, often without washing them. Water was also transferred between multiple containers or drawn using long pipes, increasing the risk of contamination. Extended storage further worsened the problem.
Awareness of water safety was also low. Around 67% of households judged water quality solely by its appearance, taste, smell or colour and skipped treatment if it appeared clean. Many switched to bottled water only after experiencing a waterborne illness or when infants were present at home.
Contaminated drinking water remains a major cause of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery, especially among children. The study recommends an uninterrupted water supply and the WHO’s Water Safety Plans to reduce contamination risks from source to tap. Researchers warn that as climate change worsens, water scarcity and extreme weather, safe water supply and storage will become important.
