The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Probe faults Board claim on daily water supply

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Probe faults Board claim on daily water supply

J.S. Ifthekhar

Maximum of 10 p.c. deficiency in the number of connections covered in several areas

Hyderabad: The Water Board’s claim of supplying daily water in the entire core city area is found to be incorrect. There is a difference of 10 per cent in what the Board claims and the ground reality. The deficiency is more pronounced in areas coming under Division I, II, III and VI besides the peripheral areas of Kukatpally.

These details have come out in the inquiry ordered by the government in the wake of outbreak of gastroenteritis epidemic in Bholakpur area last month.

Sunil Sharma, then Commissioner, Municipal Administration, who conducted the probe found a maximum of 10 per cent deficiency in the number of connections covered in several areas. In Division VII and L.B. Nagar areas, there is not much difference noticed while in Division IV and V more connections were found to be covered than what the Board claimed.

Sample survey

However, the Board authorities are not giving importance to the inquiry findings. “It is only a sample survey covering about 1,000 connections. It is not a comprehensive report,” said HMWSSB Managing Director M.T. Krishna Babu.

When the daily water supply scheme was launched on November 14 last year, the Board supplied water to 3.52 lakh connections. Of these, 34,000 were in the peripheral areas. Now the Board was supplying water to 3.20 lakh connections in the core area and 84,000 in Kukatpally and L.B. Nagar areas.

However, in respect of some areas there is a fall in the number of connections covered. For instance, the number of connections covered in Division I has come down from 36,000 as on November 14 last to 32,000 now. In Division III the connections covered have shrunk from 51,000 to 30,000 and Division IV 34,000 to 28,000. The Board is not able to increase the daily water coverage to other areas on account of low pressure.

In many areas, people feel it is better to get water on alternate days with good pressure rather than daily water in trickles.

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