8.5 lakh tanker trips estimated for city in next three months

Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) has estimated that around 8.50 lakh tanker trips will be provided from April to June 2024. The HMWSSB assessed that the board will provide 2.50 lakh tankers in April, 3 lakh tankers in May and 3 lakh tankers in June to the people of the city. Including the previous months pending trips, in the month of March, the water board has served 1.69 lakh tanker trips to the people.
People of the city have booked 1,18,804 tankers in March -2024. Out of them, individual offices booked 55,449, bulk orders were 52,167, non-domestic 6,699, 3,353 to the slums and 1,136 tankers were booked for other categories in March.
The board has attributed the main reason for the increase in the demand for the tankers to depletion of groundwater levels in the city. The board has conducted a survey in the city, where it found out that 65 per cent of consumers’ borewells dried up and 15 per cent consumers’ borewells yield is reduced in the city.
HMWSSB is procuring  365 MS tanks from the  manufacturing companies and will be stocked in the central stores and will be issued to the new vehicle providers from the third week of April so that total tankers in operation will become 1,203.
 Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) principal secretary M Dana Kishore on Monday said that If there will be an emergency for drinking water, for the first time the government is going to arrange a barge on Nagarjuna Sagar. With this facility, water can be drawn even at the dead storage in the reservoir. In view of the city water demands, HMWSSB made emergency pumping arrangements to draw water from dead storage at Nagarjuna Sagar from April 15.
The officials of the HMWSSB said that the emergency water pumping of Yellampalli reservoir will start in May and Hyderabad people will receive water till July end.
Dana Kishore also mentioned that one of the reasons for the groundwater depletion is that there are no rain water harvesting structures (RWHS) in many buildings of the city.