Water Grid plan to fizzle out?

Lack of groundwater resources likely to make the govt’s much-hyped programme a nonstarter

Hyderabad: The Telangana government seems to have hit a roadblock in implementing the prestigious ‘Water Grid’ scheme in 52 out of 67 municipalities as the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) do not have reliable and dependable water sources to supply round-the-clock potable drinking water under the programme.

In the remaining 15 municipalities, only 40 percent of the water sources are dependable.

According to a report, submitted recently to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao by the State Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD), not a single municipality has enough dependable and reliable water sources to meet the requirement of water under the scheme in the State.

While laying pipes and giving connections is not a big problem, supply of water is likely to be a major challenge, the department feels.

A copy of the report, which is available with The Hans India, says that dependable water sources have been identified only in Manchiryal, Bellampally and Nirmal in Adilabad district, Sircilla, and Karimnagar in Karimnagar district, Jangaon and Warangal Municipal Corporation in Warangal district, Kothagudem, Palvoncha and Khammam municipalities in Khammam district, Sangareddy , Siddipet and Zaheerabad in Medak district and Nizamabad and Bodhan urban local bodies (ULBs) in Nizamabad district.

Among 11 ULBs in Mahbubngar district and six in Ranga Reddy district, not a single municipality has reliable water source to take up the massive drinking water programme. In Nalgonda district, only Nalgonda municipality has a water source, says the report.

In all, the MA&UD department projected 370.15 MLD (Million Litres per Day) water requirement for all urban bodies, but the availability of water is below 30 per cent of the total requirement.

The department also estimated the requirement of water by 2033 would be 1,401.41 MLD, and 1,886.15 MLD by 2048 in the municipalities alone in the State. The officials of the MA&UD department told The Hans India that the Chief Minister had been informed about the difficulties being faced in launching the scheme without water sources.

Linking of rivers and lifting water from the reservoirs nearby the municipalities was the only option available and this has been conveyed to the Chief Minister, the sources said. However, the ‘cost-intensive’ projects would put heavy financial burden on the State.

Following depleting water levels in the reservoirs, relying completely on the Krishna and the Godavari rivers to meet water requirements would not be feasible, the officials added.

At present, due to lack of sufficient water sources, only 40 per cent of the total 15 lakh households were covered under the existing safe drinking water scheme in the urban areas. Local tanks and bore-wells were the main water sources for supply of water to the denizens in the last 50 years.

By:Patan Afzal Babu