Old infrastructure chokes 300 colonies in Secunderabad of water supply

SECUNDERABAD: In the last three decades, 300 residential colonies have come within the Secunderabad Cantonment area; yet the four-lakh-strong population living here continue to face regular water woes. While the rest of Hyderabad, under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), receives water every alternate day, within the Cantonment, the supply is limited to once in three days.
Even as anguished residents question the raw deal meted out to them, authorities blame the British-era supply network and limited capacity of service reservoirs in the area as the reason for the restricted supply.Apart from one or two new ones, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), as it turns out, continues to depend on decades old reservoirs.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) supplies 60 lakh gallons of water per day (lgpd) to 12 offtake points in the Cantonment at a cost of Rs 1.2 crore per month.
“We ensure supplies in bulk quantity. Internal distribution and billing are SCB’s worry,” M Dana Kishore, managing director of the water board told TOI.
While Military Engineering Services (MES) takes care of the water supply to defence establishments and staff quarters, HMWS&SB supplies a certain quantity of water to MES under the bulk category, officials said.
Another problem facing this area is the issue of depleting groundwater levels. Barring some areas, majority of the others are faced with an acute drop in levels. Incidence of groundwater plummeting to new depths is mainly seen in Marredpally, Trimulgherry, Bolarum, Bowenpally, Rasoolpura and Mahendra Hills. This is due to severe exploitation of groundwater. “This is because extraction of water is more than percolation of groundwater,” said an official of the water wing.
Officials say that they receive at least 10 requests from property owners to dig fresh borewells in Marredpally and other areas of Secunderabad.
Are there plans to shore up the supply network? “We have proposals to expand the water supply network and build new service reservoirs. But, due to financial crisis, we could not implement the plans,” a senior official said.
Though the cantonment board has prepared a master plan to implement a comprehensive drinking water supply for 2021, it continues to remain on paper. As per projections, SCB will have to provide 110 lgpd to a population of roughly seven lakhs. “There is a gap in demand and supply. Rapid urbanisation and poor infrastructure are to be blamed for this,” a senior SCB official.