Residents unite to overcome water problem

People living in Santhoshi Matha Colony on the outskirts of the city constructed individual rain harvesting pits and now they have abundant water

​Hyderabad: Residents of a small colony with a little over 60 houses in Santhoshi Matha Colony adjacent to the Sagar Road on the outskirts of the city scripted a success story by constructing individual rain harvesting pits (RWHPs).

Located on a rocky land, the colony has developed into a full-fledged residential area in the last two-and-a-half decades. In the initial days, colony president Mohan Reddy found no problem and used to get plenty of groundwater.

But later, during summer days the groundwater levels in the bore-wells went down significantly. However, residents had never faced acute drinking water shortage nor they were forced to purchase water tankers.

“It was only once during the peak summer of 2014 that the groundwater level had gone down to about 100 feet to 150 feet. Otherwise, water is available for us at about 90 feet,” he said.

Attributing all this to every house having a rain harvesting pit, Mohan Reddy pointed out that there are other colonies like Venkata Ramana Colony, Sai Colony and the like in the vicinity where residents face huge water scarcity and depend on the supply of daily tankers.

Most of the bore-wells in the adjacent areas had gone dry and there is no water available even if one goes as deep as 650 feet to 1,000 feet, he pointed out. “Several of these colonies facing water scarcity are located in the low laying areas. But, our colony is located over a rocky patch. Yet, we get ample water as individual households took active part in the constructing rain water harvesting pits,” he added.