With the onset of summer in Hyderabad, several parts of Old City have been facing a shortage of drinking water in the city.
Yousuf Khan, a 40-year-old salesman is a resident of Salala Barkas, located in the Old City area.
He has been spending Rs.50 every day for a can of water for the past four days.
“For the past four days, there is no sign of water in this area. Anyway we used to get water once in two days and that too, there is no fixed timing. But now we have to depend on our relatives in other parts of the city or buy water bottles from shops,” says Yousuf.
As Yousuf has to go out early every day, he says his brother has to sometimes shut his shop to look into the water problem.
“This is not the first time, for past two years, we are facing the same issue. Last year summer also we very facing acute water shortage for nearly a month. If we use borewell water, then we have to compromise water usage for household work,” he adds.
However, this is not just the case in his area. There have been complaints from several other parts of Old City like Farooq Nagar, parts of Azampura, Hafeez nagar, GM colony and Hashimabad.
“We have been giving complaints over Twitter and written complaints to water supply board officials, but there is no response from them. We use borewell water for household work, but now we are using for drinking purposes also. However, even borewell water levels have gone down,” said Khaleel, another resident of Salala Barkas.
Ahmed Ziddi, a resident of GM colony in Chandrayangutta area of the Old City, explains that for nearly a month, the duration of water supply has reduced from one and half hours to 45 minutes.
“We have to fill water for two days within 45 minutes, it becomes a daily problem. Also for the past two months, the water is so polluted that we cannot use for drinking purpose. It smells and is brown in colour, how can anyone drink that water?” he says.
While he estimates that apart from paying the water bill of Rs. 250 every month, he spends nearly Rs. 300 extra for water due to the irregular water supply.
“Our monthly water bill goes up to Rs.700, we pay the bill for water, which is not even regular. Also we have to spend money on buying water cans,” Ahmed rues.
He says, same is the situation for nearly 10,000 people staying in the colony.
Last year, HMWSSB (Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board) had planned to construct nearly 60 reservoirs and lay 2,500 km of pipelines for drinking water.
As part of the construction, the official said that the water shortage problem might last for a few weeks more.
“In Old City, work on several reservoirs has been going on, it will last for two to three weeks more. We are getting complaints but soon the problems will be resolved. Almost 80% of the work is over, and by the end of April, there will be proper supply of water,” said General manager of HMWSSB, Nagender Kumar.
“They should provide water tanks in the area for free till the work is done. Area where people do not have a water connection have to pay a certain amount for each drum provided by HMWSSB. They should also increase the number of water tanks provided in such areas,” says Amjed Ullah Khan, a spokesperson of Majlis Bachao Tehreek and a resident of the Old City.