Hyderabad: Water board earned Rs 17 crore from tankers

Deccan Chronicle: Hyderabad: Friday, September 06, 2019.

There were about 5.5 lakh bookings of commercial and domestic water tankers in the city limits alone in the span of five months, fetching the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board a whopping Rs 17 crore, according to a Right to Information (RTI) query.  This reveals the scale of dependency on water tankers and the necessity of using water efficiently. Whenever water supply is halted due to maintenance work or because of a shortage in summer time, residents rely on water tankers.

Sai Teja, who filed the RTI, told Deccan Chronicle: “We can't see any development work done by HMWSSB in the last five years. Where is all the money from the tankers going? They can use the money for some development work as leakages and minor repairs are everywhere wasting water.” From March 1 to July 15, 2019, about 3.9 lakh domestic water takers were supplied by HMWSSB, which fetched about Rs 6.74 crore. There were about 1.90 lakh commercial water tankers supplying water that generated about Rs 10.96 crore in revenue.

Domestic water tanker charges Rs 500 and a commercial water tanker, Rs 850. HMWSSB officials say most of this amount goes in driver charges and transportation charges and the money directly gets deposited in the departmental account. More disciplined use of water, recharging ground water and rain harvesting will reduce dependency on tankers.