HYDERABAD: Despite heavy inflows into Nagarjuna Sagar and Sri Pada Yellampally Project (Godavari) which meets over 80 per cent of drinking water needs of Greater Hyderabad and outskirt villages, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has ruled out the possibility of restoring daily drinking water supplies to the twin cities in near future.
The daily drinking water supply is not on cards. There is no request or demand from any section of the society for daily water supplies, Water Board officials told Express. Besides, the board cannot proceed with daily water supplies as the existing distribution network system cannot take the load as it needs to be strengthened by laying additional drinking water pipelines.
Also when Assembly polls are just a few months away, the State government would not be interested to go ahead with daily water supplies. In case a problem arises in future and the State could not meet the aspirations of the people, it would create a negative impact on administration. The government, thus, wants to play it safe and hence, is keen to continue with the existing alternate day water supplies.
Because of heavy rains, Nagarjuna Sagar is on the verge of brimming after a long time, as against FRL of 590 feet with a storage capacity of 312 tmcft, the present FRL level is 550 tmcft with gross present storage of water at 210 tmcft. Last year, on the same day, the FRL was 500 tmcft with water storage of 115 tmcft.
Similarly, in Sri Pada Yellampally Project (Godavari), as against the FRL of 485 tmcft, the present FRL is 483 tmcft. Of the 20 tmcft of water, the present storage is about 19 tmcft. Though the reservoir got filled up more than a week ago, additional inflows of water is being released downstream.
The only worry for the Water Board is Singur reservoir where there have been no rains in the catchment areas of Nashik and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state. Of the total capacity of 29.91 tmcft, the present available water is about 7.60 tmcft.
465 MGD water a day
Water Board is supplying 465 million gallons of water per day (MGD). Of it, 260 MGD is being pumped from Akkampally reservoir (Nagarjuna Sagar), 140 MGD from Sri Pada Yellampally (Godavari) and remaining 27 MGD from Singur and 38 MGD from Manjira reservoirs. Water Board has completely stopped drawing water from Osmansagar and Himayatsagar