It’s season of water-borne ailments

HYDERABAD: Monsoon means stomach ailments. This happens largely because we end up drinking contaminated water. Now that the rains are round the bend, the supply of unclean water will once again be a major bane. This recurring problem is because drinking water gets spiked with water from storm water drains before it flows out of taps.
Potable water gets contaminated largely because pipes dry up during periods of intermittent supply, which permits water from outside to seep into pipelines carrying domestic supplies.Most of these lines are old and have large holes.
The seepage takes place through these. Often the path of water pipelines and storm water lines cross and seepage from the storm water lines gets into the regular water pipes. Here, the joints are also important.
Through years of use and neglect, the joints get weak and crack up. It’s through these fractured joints that dirty water gets in, a Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) official conceded.
There’s a way out of this problem. But it’s expensive. It would take Rs 20 crore to convert the existing galvanised iron pipes into anticorrosion, rust-proof medium density poly-eurethene pipes, the official added.
The city has a total of 4 lakh domestic connections, of which some have already been converted. So, in a sense, the entire network need not be changed. But a large segment needs to be dug up and replaced, he added. Though the water board promised to begin this process once Krishna waters reached the city, the replacement is yet to begin.
“We need to find out where exactly the old system has got weak and needs change,� the official explained. The water board still doesn’t have the exact picture neither does it have details of the pipeline network.With the Krishna waters reaching city limits, this will help us map the whole system before the replacement process begins,� he added.
The water board has as many as 122 reservoirs, 59 pumping stations, a 256 km main line and 1,800 km of local distribution lines, he pointed out.