Water board can’t fulfill K Chandrashekhar Rao’s wish

HYDERABAD: With an eye on GHMC elections, chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao wants the Water Board to commission the Godavari drinking water project before the announcement of polls, but officials are saying that the project can be ready only by the first half of 2016.
As per the Hyderabad high court order to the Telangana government, GHMC elections should be held in December this year.For that, the notification should be issued about 45 days before. “We can at best conduct trial runs in July this year. But the project can be commissioned only in March or April 2016,” according to sources in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB).
The Godavari drinking water project aims to provide 172 million gallons a day (MGD) from Karimnagar district to the city. According to sources, out of the total 184 km, pipelines have been laid for only 170 km. Works on the 33.11 KV sub-station are almost nearing completion. However, the master balancing reservoir at Ghanpur is far from completion and the sources said that another six months will be needed for it to be ready.
Similarly, although the local Army authorities gave clearance to Water Board to lay 2.5 km of the pipeline through an abandoned firing range at Kowkur village, there is no official communication from the Union defence ministry on this. Unless the clearance comes, the board cannot commence work on the stretch.
KCR wants the project to be completed by October as he hopes that it would turn the tide in favour of the TRS in the GHMC elections. “It is not in our hands. Even if we work 24/7, we will not be able to complete the project by that time,” said officials.
Meanwhile, Krishna Phase III project, which will provide another 90 MGD to the city, has been partially commissioned and 45 MGD is being supplied to the city. Authorities said that the remaining 45 MGD will be supplied to the city by next month, but added that this might get delayed.
Greater Hyderabad currently gets 385 MGD of drinking water through various sources. Krishna Phases I, II and III together supply about 225 MGD, Singur supplies 75 MGD, Manjira 45 MGD, Osmansagar 25 MGD and Himayatsagar 15 MGD. However, the city’s drinking water requirement is 512 MGD. Once the Godavari and remaining 45 MGD of Krishna Phase III are completed, the city can sit pretty by getting a total supply of 6,023 MGD daily.
Times view
For a city with nearly 80 lakh population, there is always a shortage of drinking water. In fact, even till date, many surrounding areas of GHMC are getting water only once in three or four days. The Telangana government should take up the drinking water projects as a priority and ensure that there is adequate daily supply of water for residents throughout the year.