Hyderabad reservoirs see poor inflows even as heavy rains pound parts of State

HYDERABAD:  Though heavy rains over the last few days have filled up tanks and reservoirs in different parts of Telangana, not much has changed in Hyderabad’s reservoirs.

The city’s four major reservoirs, namely Osmansagar, Himayatsagar, Singur and Manjira, that used to meet nearly 35 to 40 per cent of the drinking needs of Greater Hyderabad and surrounding villages until a few years ago, are in a deplorable state.

The rains have not managed to increase their water levels even by a few feet. 

Due to negligible water inflows into these reservoirs, an increase of not even a few million gallons of water was recorded in the last 10 days.“There is not enough rains in the catchment areas of these crucial reservoirs. The reservoirs will be filled only if this happens,” HMWS&SB officials told Express.

The total storage capacity of these four reservoirs is about 39.816 TMC — Osmansagar with 3.900 TMC, Himayatsagar 2.967 TMC, Singur 30,000 TMC and Manjira 1.500 TMC. Their present storage is just about 4 TMC. The reliability of these water sources are diminishing with each passing year due to scanty rains and encroachments in catchment areas.

The worst-ever inflow levels — especially in Osmansagar and Himayatsagar — in one decade was observed this year due to scanty rainfall in the region. Construction of 30,000 check dams, rock filled dams percolation tanks, contour bunding, farm ponds and major water harvesting structures in the catchment areas have caused the reservoirs to dry up. In the last two decades, Osmansagar and Himayatsagar have never reached their Full Tank Level (FTL).