More water supplied to posh areas in city

Times of India: Hyderabad: Friday, June 28, 2013.

Water was hardly ever free but if the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) could have its way, water may soon become the sole property of the rich. Drinking water supply data for April, given out by HMWS&SB in response to an RTI application, shows that the average water supplied per connection was much higher in the well-to-do areas of the city like Gachibowli, Madhapur and Jubilee Hills compared to most other areas.

For instance, an average of 71.22 kilolitres (kl) of water was supplied in summer to the Gachibowli section of division 15 where there are 4,598 connections. Madhapur, which falls in the same division, was supplied an average of 62.6 kl per connection while Banjara Hills and Miyapur were supplied around 50 kl. On the other hand, most areas with middle-income and low-income groups were supplied less than half of what the chart toppers got. The lowest was Gowlipura in Old City which got a meager average of 15 kl of water despite having 7,315 connections.

Though the total amount of water supplied by the Water Board would have been more than what was shown in the figures owing to the board's policy of billing slum consumers for only 15 kl even if the consumption is higher, it still does not explain the disparity. Division 6 has a large number of slum connections (around 15,000, second only to division 3), but still sections in this division, which include Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills and Somajiguda, received more water than most other areas in April.

M Srinivas of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), whose fellow party worker filed the RTI application, alleged that even slum dwellers are being hoodwinked by the board. "Though the Water Board claims to bill slum consumers only for 15 kl, many slum dwellers pay more even if they have not been supplied that amount of water," he said.

"Division 6 also had the maximum number of paid water tankers, which was higher than the number of free tankers sent out to the entire city during peak summer. Only the rich people who can pay can avail drinking water in the city," he added.