land uses the same amount of water as is required to
grow sugarcane in rural India. The Bureau of Indian
Standards recommends a minimum supply of 200 litres
per capita per day for domestic consumption in cities
with full flushing systems.
We know the problems. Growing urbanisation, increase
in population and construction of vertical residences and
commercial centres put pressure on the largely ineffi-
cient municipal bodies. The simple solution is to enhance
supplies, rather than manage demand, or recharge
groundwater. “Our approach has been to supply more
water because of our flawed assessment of the availability
of water,” explains Himanshu Kulkarni, executive direc-
tor of the Advanced Centre for Water Resources
Development and Management.
At the same time, policymakers tend to overestimate
what is available, underestimate how much we use. Hence,
say experts, they think that given the monsoons, the
country can afford to use more water through the
construction of dams and wells. Take the case of Delhi,
which earlier got its water from Bhakra Dam, then from a
barrage on the Yamuna, followed by Tehri Dam. Now,
Unparching
Hyderabad
The Telangana capital has
enough drinking water, but it
is worried about the receding
groundwater level, especially
this summer. Delayed mon-
soons created a minor panic
in May, which hasn’t abated
yet. “The demand, which
peaked in May, has not come
down even in July,” admits
an official of the Hyderabad
Metropolitan Water Supply
and Sewage Board. The esti-
mated demand per household
is 150 litres per day in the
core area of Hyderabad, and
100 litres in the peripheral
regions. According to the
water board’s director, M.
Dana Kishore, there was noneed to panic. The Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Cor-
poration, which covers the
three cities of Hyderabad,
Secunderabad and Cyberabad,
needs 420 million gallons
a day, which can be largely
catered to by Kaleswaram
via Yellampally (a perennial
sou rce of 172 million gallons
a day) and Krishna river
(270 million gallons a day).
Kish ore claims that Nagarju-
na sagar’s dead-end storage
can supply 270 million gallons
for more than a year. Experts,
however, contend that
Hyder abad needs to reduce
its dependence on faraway
sources like the Krishna and
Godavari rivers, and augment
supplies from the nearby
reservoirs of Malanna Sagar
and Konda Panchamma. O
M.S. Shanker5 august 2019 OutlOOk 35
Usha Ramesh