Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) is facing the heat from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for their failure for not upgrading sewerage network in the Greater Hyderabad limits.
Due to lack of sewerage network, nearly 75 percent of sewage that is generated in the city is diverted into the storm water drains maintained by GHMC and house owners. Not even five percent of the new sewage pipelines were laid in the last ten years.
One such eye opener was the recent incident at Panjagutta, where a portion of old slab laid over the storm water drain at Model House caved in on Friday, leading to a massive traffic chaos. The drain, which was meant to carry rain water was completely filled with sewage.
GHMC Commissioner M T Krishna said, “GHMC will take up the issue with the HMWS&SB and request them to lay adequate sewerage lines wherever required and ask people to connect the sewage lines instead of letting into the storm water drains,” he said.
He further stated that most of the commercial complexes or shops in and around the area are directly letting their sewage into these storm water drains.
Agreeing with him, were the HMWS&SB officials, who admitted that commercial establishments are unauthorisedly letting the sewage into the storm water drains.
If the State government releases adequate funds to the Water Board, they can upgrade the sewage system by laying the new lines and replacing the small ones with big pipelines, they added. The ever-increasing population is also one major concern.
Two decades ago the population of Hyderabad was 25-30 lakh, while the present population is around 70-80 lakh.
In many areas, the sewerage system is incomplete and hence sewage is either simply let into the storm water drains or lakes.
Compounding the problem was garbage dumping in the drains, merger of sewerage lines and water supply lines, service cables crossing the storm water drain, were all obstructing free flow of water.
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