The crucial third phase of Krishna Drinking Water Supply Scheme to meet the drinking needs of Greater Hyderabad hangs in balance due to the lackadaisical attitude of the state government in general and officials of the finance and municipal administration departments in particular to issuance of necessary orders.
If the third phase is completed, 90 million gallons of water per day (MGD) can be drawn from the Akkampally balancing reservoir. Already, the state capital is drawing 180 MGD of water from the Krishna under Phase-I and Phase-II schemes. In May this year, chief minister N.Kiran Kumar Reddy gave green signal for taking up the Krishna Phase-III scheme with loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) to meet the increasing water needs of Greater Hyderabad. He asked the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) to complete the Krishna Phase-III project at any cost by December 2013. Even two months after the chief minister’s go-ahead, no official orders have been issued.
With the city facing drinking water crisis, all local MLAs, irrespective of their political affiliation, have been bringing pressure on the government for the last three years for release of Rs 1,670 crore for implementing the project.
The total allocation for drinking water needs of Hyderabad from river Krishna is 16.5 tmcft. Already, 11 tmcft of water is being drawn under the Phase-I and II schemes. There is no alternative now to drawing the remaining 5.5 tmcft of Krishna water as the Godavari project is a long-drawn affair.
HMWS&SB officials told Express that detailed project reports (DPRs) had been prepared long back and they were ready to execute the works once the government released the funds. It is learnt that the project is held up with the finance department seeking a clarification from the water board. Later, the matter has to be referred to the state cabinet for its nod.
Due to the rapid urbanisation after the merger of surrounding municipalities with Hyderabad, and the growth of the IT sector, ORR growth corridor and industrial clusters have created a huge water supply demand in addition to the normal domestic demand. The Osmansagar and Himayatsagar lakes, the city’s traditional drinking water sources, are drying up frequently. Added to the problem is the dwindling inflows to the Singur and Manjira reservoirs.
As of now, the city is experiencing a shortage of over 100 to 125 MGD of water. The situation is worse on the city’s outskirts where drinking water is being supplied once in four or five days.
HMWS&SB officials said that the main components of the proposed Krishna Phase-III scheme are construction of a water treatment plant (WTP) of 90 MGD capacity at Kodandapur (Rs 149 crore) and Clear Water Transmission Pipelines of pumping/gravity from Kodandapur to Sahebnagar (in 4 packages) for a total length of 114.3 km (Rs 943 crore), construction of Clear Water Reservoirs, MBRs for storage of 117 ML capacity to facilitate intermediate pumping at Kodandapur, Nasarlapally, Godakondla, construction of pump houses and erection of pumping equipment (Rs 65 crore) and laying of distribution trunk mains of 62 km length to connect to service reservoirs (Rs 150 crore).
The clear water transmission mains will be laid parallel to the existing pipelines along the Nagarjunasagar-Hyderabad road. Pump houses, transformers and sub-stations will be constructed at the existing premises adjacent to the Phase-I & II structures at respective campuses.