The Times of India  27.08.2010

HYDERABAD: With incessant rains for the past few days, Osmansagar, one of the major drinking water sources to the city, is nearly full. The water body has recorded such heavy inflows and water level four years ago.

"Till Wednesday night, the water level at Osmansagar was 1779.200 feet. (The full tank level (FTL) is 1790 feet). By Thursday afternoon, water level increased by another three feet and reached up to 1782 feet. We are expecting more inflows by late Thursday night or Friday afternoon," Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) director-technical, S Prabhakara Sarma told TOI.

The Water Board had stopped drawing water from Osmansagar in May as water level reached dead storage. Water Board used to draw 18 million gallons per day (MGD) to ensure daily water supply to some areas of the city.

"Due to heavy rainfall in August first week, inflows increased. As a result, we started drawing eight MGD of water from August 19. We will draw additional eight to 10 MGD in the next couple of days in case inflows continue," he added.

"We are closely monitoring the water level. We may even open crest gates of the reservoir by Friday morning in case inflows continue from catchment areas. In 2000, we opened the crest gates after the reservoir reached FTL, " HMWS&SB general manager-transmission D Sridhar Babu said.

The water level at Himayathsagar too is rising slowly. Himayathsagar's FTL is 1763 feet, but as per Water Board records, the water level by Wednesday touched 1751 feet mark. Water levels at Singur and Manjira are satisfactory, he added.