Hyderabad: The water board today opened two out of 15 gates of the Himayat Sagar due to excess rainfall. The historic drinking water reservoir has almost reached its full tank level of 1790 feet, with only about three to four feet left for the lake to get full.
A senior official from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), who did not want to be quoted, said that there won’t be any trouble for any residents as only two gates have been lifted. Last year, officials had to lift gates of the Himayat Sagar lake as well during the October floods, which resulted in the Musi river flooding many low-lying areas at Chaderghat near Malakpet.
At one point of time, until some years ago, the Nizam-era Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar lakes used to supply about 10 percent of Hyderabad’s total daily water supply of 345 million gallons per day (MGD). Currently, the HMWSS supplies about 462 MGD of water to Hyderabad every day, most of which is taken from the Krishna (phase 1, 2 and 3) and Godavari (phase-1) projects.
The Osman Sagar, and Himayat Sagar reservoirs put together, however, supply only 40 MGD (or much lesser depending on availability) of water, with the combined supply between them even coming down to only 15 MG. The situation was alarming on Thursday given that the catchment areas of Osman Sagar received heavy inflows owing to continuous rains over the last few days.
On Thursday, heavy rainfall across the state claimed one life today, when a man in Asifabad district got swept away in by a stream of rushing water which he tried to cross. Similar scenes also played out in Nirmal district, where National Disaster Response Force personnel were brought in for relief. The teams rescued many people including a pregnant woman and a 11-day baby GNR Colony in Nirmal town, reported local media.
According to the Telangana State Planning and Development Society’s website, the highest rainfall recorded today was 197.8 millimetres (mm) at Jagityal, while the second and third top highest rains of 194 mm and 176.8 mm were recorded from Kumaran Bheem district. In Nirmal, Sarangapur area witnessed 164.5 mm of rainfall today, with other parts of the district witnessing showers between 60 and 136 mm.
On a lighter note in Nirmal district, people were also seen fishing on the streets after lakes and streams began overflowing due to heavy rains that lashed northern parts of Telangana. In the Greater Hyderabad area on Thursday, rainfall remained light at most places. Saidabad and other areas like Serilingampally received showers at over 20 mm.
The IMD had issued a forecast of heavy rains until July 24. Orange and red warnings were issued for northern Telangana.