Urban News

Osman Sagar altogether has 15 crest gates.

Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) lifted two gates upto 2 feet level, releasing 480 cusecs of water, downstream of the Musi. The last time the gates were opened way back in August 2000, when the city received flash floods.

HMWS&SB officials told Expresso that the Osman Sagar was filled to its full reservoir level of 1790 feet. As against storage capacity of 3.900 TMC, the present level was about 3.800 TMC. The level is expected to rise further during the next 24 to 48 hours.

SP Sharma, director (Technical), HMWS&SB said the Water Board has alerted the state government and the district administration to evacuate hut-dwellers living on the banks of the Musi. Officials urged tehsildars to alert hut-dwellers and people living in low-lying areas to move to safer places.

Due to heavy rains in the catchment areas of Osman Sagar, there have been huge inflows during the last 48 hours, according to Water Board officials. The officials added that they were keeping a close watch and assured to take necessary action if any emergency situation arose.

As a precaution, the chief general managers of Circle I and III have been asked to make necessary arrangements for protecting the water pipeline and the main sewers along the Musi.

There is some good news for the people living in different parts of Ahmedabad city and the adjoining villages. They will get legal water connections by the end of 2011, said Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam. “By December 2011, we expect to have 100 per cent water-supply coverage in Ahmedabad and the villages on the outskirts,” he said.

The municipal commissioner was speaking at the Engineers’ Day celebrations at the CEPT University on Wednesday.

Gautam also stressed on the need for academics to be involved in urban initiatives. He also said it was important to conduct proper academic studies and surveys before undertaking infrastructure initiatives.

Citing an example of the recent faux pas the AMC committed in Gomtipur, Gautam said a far-too-large water tank was built in the area that led to flooding. He said this upset the residents and they vented their ire on some of the AMC engineers. He said the civic body built the water tank in the area without studying the area's discharge capacity.

Giving one more example of improper work undertaken by the civic body, he said the AMC had bored 500 wells that were lying completely unused, except during a water crisis in 2006.

The commissioner used these examples to stress on the importance of carrying out surveys and studies by experts and academic institutes before execution of projects.

CEPT University director R N Vakil also reiterated that the state university should consider “societal concern” as a major priority. 

As academicians, we cannot afford to stay in our ivory towers. That's why we have made it a tradition that students should do some sort of relevant project instead of just celebrating days like these as an in-campus affair,” Vakil said.

Summary report

Water capacity : The CEPT study points out the need for increasing storage capacity with growing demand. The east zone has more capacity as compared to other zones. The disparity leads to problems like water scarcity. Illegal connections: Forty-five per cent of the connections in the city are illegal and run through PVC pipes.

Contamination : As consumer connections are of galvanised iron, the life span is just seven to eight years. Such replacements are not done at regular basis, which leads to problems like leakage, contamination.

Wastage : The AMC loses anywhere between Rs 4 and Rs 17 lakh every day due to discrepancies in the water supply system. A study conducted by CEPT shows the residents waste something around 17.6 crore litres daily. A sample study of one housing society shows that installing water-meters cuts down the consumption and wastage. The average monthly expenditure was cut down from Rs 394 to Rs 130 after the meters installed.

Water meters : The study shows that only 3 per cent of the legal connections in Ahmedabad have meters.