Hyderabad: The Telangana government has argued before the state high court that the restrictions put in place by Government Order (GO) 111 to safeguard the twin reservoirs of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar in Hyderabad will remain in effect until the expert committee submitted its report and the government issues new regulations.
The Managing Director of HMWS&SB, the Special Chief Secretaries of MAUD, Finance, and Irrigation, the Member Secretary of the Telangana State Pollution Control Board, and the Director (Planning) of HMDA make up the expert committee established under GO 69, which was released on April 12, 2022.
The GO 111 restrictions, dated March 8, 1996, forbidded 84 villages’ worth of polluting businesses, big hotels, residential colonies, and other establishments from operating within a 10-kilometer radius of the FTL.
Municipal Administration special chief secretary Arvind Kumar filed a counter in response to a PIL, claiming that the restrictions imposed by GO 111 had been lifted with the issuance of GO 69 because Hyderabad’s drinking water needs were no longer dependent on the twin reservoirs, as was the case for the issuance of GO 111.
The original objective of the GO 111 was to protect the catchment area of these two water bodies, which at the time served as Hyderabad City’s main source of supplies.
“When the aforementioned GO was issued, these two reservoirs held 27.59% of the installed capacity for drinking water, according to data provided by HMWS&SB,” claimed Kumar.
The overall reliability of these lakes is now less than 1.25%, and they are no longer the sources of drinking water supply for Hyderabad city because installed drinking water capacity has expanded from 145 to 602, and an additional 344 is currently being created.
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