Compared to three summers ago, the demand for water tankers in Hyderabad has nearly tripled. From about 50,000 to 75,000 water tanker bookings in March and April 2022, the demand has gone up to over 2 lakh tankers a month in 2025 during the same period, according to figures from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB).
Much of this demand is concentrated in the western parts of Hyderabad – Kondapur, Madhapur, Manikonda, KPHB, etc – which have been grappling with poor groundwater levels while also witnessing a surge in population and construction activity.
Officials and experts point to a mix of factors – rising population and human activity, groundwater depletion, overexploitation of available groundwater, misuse of water, inadequate rainwater harvesting systems, and poor urban planning – for the spike in water tanker demands.
“Overall, the rising demand for tankers is an indication that municipal supply is short, there are problems with groundwater, and there is inaccessibility built into the expansion of Hyderabad,” said researcher and environmental activist Narasimha Reddy Donthi.
Groundwater levels
According to the state’s Groundwater Department, the average groundwater levels have seen a rising trend this summer compared to previous years.
“There is a dip in groundwater levels every summer, but overall the situation isn’t bad. Because of hydrological cycles, we see a greater dip once every two to three years, but there is no reason for alarm,” said Mahesh Kumar, Assistant Director at Groundwater Department, Telangana.
The Department monitors ground water levels on a monthly basis.
According to the figures from April 2025, only 1% of Hyderabad has shallow water levels (less than 5 m below ground level (bgl)).
Around 35% of the city has moderately deep water levels (15-20 m bgl), mainly in the north, northwestern, and eastern parts of the city.
Deeper water levels (more than 20m bgl) are seen in 10% of the city, including parts of Serilingampally, Hayathnagar, Abdullapurmet, Saroornagar, Kukatpally, Bachupally, Malkajgiri, and Dundigal mandals.
Mahesh Kumar said that northwestern areas such as Serilingampally and KPHB are in the red zone as they have a high population density and hence groundwater extraction is bound to be higher.
“Nearly 90% of the water tanker demand comes from parts of West Hyderabad such as Kukatpally, Serilingampaly, Gachibowli, Madhapur, Jubilee Hills, etc,” said K Ashok Reddy, Managing Director of HMWSSB. The expanding IT and industrial corridor of the city is mainly centred in these areas.
In April 2025, of the 46 mandals in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) up to the Outer Ring Road (ORR), groundwater levels ranged from as shallow as 1.16 m at Bahadurpura to 28.23 m at Kukatpally, with an average level of 12.01 m bgl.
During the 2024-25 water year (June 1 to May 31), Hyderabad received 19% excess rainfall overall.
The Department said that compared to April 2024, a net rise in groundwater levels of 0.08 m was seen during April 2025.
The Department uses 57 piezometers (measuring devices at monitoring stations) for its assessments. According to Narasimha Reddy, these are insufficient to get a clear picture.
“In areas such as Kondapur, there are many apartments without even a drop of water coming out of their borewells. So there are super dark areas (areas where the groundwater is severely depleted), but there aren’t enough monitoring stations to identify them,” he said.
The HMWSSB on the other hand had made rain water harvesting structures (RWHS) mandatory for all houses in the city by the end of 2024. “Out of 45,000 houses surveyed, 16,000 houses have completed building the structures,” Ashok Reddy said.
Stagnant water supply
“Since 2015, the number of water connections in Hyderabad has gone up (by 70%) from 8 lakh to 13.8 lakh. But the supply has remained the same,” said Ashok Reddy.
For the past 10 years, the daily water supply to Hyderabad has remained stagnant, at 550 MGD (Million Gallons per Day).
The supply will be enhanced only when the Godavari Drinking Water Supply (GDWS) project phase-II is completed in 2027, Ashok Reddy said.
Narasimha Reddy called this a case of poor urban planning. “When the administration knows its water supply capacity, its pipeline networks, groundwater levels, etc., allowing the city’s expansion, including high-rise apartment buildings, without adequate water resources is a planning failure,” he said.
Lack of equitable access to water
The HMWSSB is required to supply about 150 litre per capita per day (lpcd) of water for a population of 69.93 lakh (as per the 2011 Census). A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) from 2020 found that the board was unable to do so.
Population scientists estimate Hyderabad city’s population to have gone from about 80 lakh in 2011 to over 1 crore in 2021, and expect it to cross 1.3 crore in 2031.
Even the per capita water available for supply was only 118 lpcd due to high water losses of about 39%, the CAG report said, concluding that the water actually supplied was around 66 to 71 lpcd.
It also found that losses on account of Unaccounted For Water (UFW) increased by 29% from 134.57 MGD in 2014-15 to 172.95 MGD in 2017-18.
These figures were based on an audit of the HMWSSB conducted during March to August 2018, covering the period 2013-18.
“Our estimation is that the municipal supply meets only 30 to 40% of the needs of Hyderabad,” said Narasimha Reddy, adding that the remaining needs are met by groundwater extraction, which is not equally accessible across the city.
Most people in the city do not access the required 150 litres per capita per day from HMWSSB, he said. “Overall, wherever groundwater is very low, people are suffering in many ways,” he added.
The HMWSSB says they are managing leakages in the supply by monitoring illegal motors connected to water pipelines and have seized around 800 motors so far in the past month.
“Misuse of our water, tank overflows, and other such leakages are also being monitored by our staff and penalised,” Ashok Reddy said.