Singur shut from Hyderabad taps, but can turn saviour in dry spell

HYDERABAD: Singur reservoir, which was one of the drinking water sources of the city till 2016, may turn out to be Greater Hyderabad's saviour this year. Even as Telangana awaits rains and fresh inflows into Krishna river that could ensure water supply to the city along with supplies from Godavari, the government has stopped release of water from Singur for irrigation needs in Medak and Nizamabad districts.
The government had in December last declared that Singur reservoir, with a storage capacity of 29 thousand million cubic feet (TMCft) of water, would no longer be a drinking water source for the city. Instead, it was to be used for irrigating cropland in Medak and in downstream Nizambad district. It was also to act as the primary reservoir for supplying drinking water in Medak district under Mission Bhagiratha. Water released from Singur is usually stored at the downstream Nizamsagar project which when full, can irrigate 25 lakh acres in Nizamabad district.
With none other than chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao calling the water storage at reservoirs in the state 'precarious', the government took a decision not to release water for irrigation from Singur. This was despite several pleas from agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to the chief minister to allow release of water to Nizamsagar to save the ayacut under the project.
But "with not a drop of water coming into Manjira river," as described by the chief minister the other day at a press conference, the existing storage of about 18 TMCft of water at Singur is being saved to meet the drinking water needs of Greater Hyderabad. The government hopes that things would improve in the next 60 days or so before this year's South West monsoon withdraws.
With the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board already scraping the bottom at Nagarjunsagar, the government hopes that its hedging of its bets by saving the water in Singur would ensure continued supply of drinking water to the city in the event the current monsoon fails to live up to its expectations.