Rains: HMWS&SB checks water quality

Hyderabad: Due to the huge inflow in the Godavari River and the State receiving abundant rainfall, a series of measures have been taken up by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) to ensure that drinking water is not contaminated. As part of the exercise, water samples sent for testing have been increased […]

Hyderabad: Due to the huge inflow in the Godavari River and the State receiving abundant rainfall, a series of measures have been taken up by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) to ensure that drinking water is not contaminated.

As part of the exercise, water samples sent for testing have been increased to 15,000 per day from 5,000 per day. Sanctioning emergency funds, booster chlorination, inspections of vulnerable areas, distribution of chlorine tablets in slums and deployment of engineers at pump houses were the other measures taken up by the board to safeguard the health of people.

To make sure drinking water supplied to the city has adequate amounts of residual chlorine i.e. 0.5 ppm (parts per million), the HMWS&SB adopted a three-step chlorination process. In the first phase, the process of chlorination is being carried out at the water treatment plants (WTP). In the second phase, chlorination is being done at the Main Balancing Reservoirs (MBR) and finally, booster chlorination is being done at the service reservoirs.

“Till date, we have distributed seven lakh chlorine tablets in slums and the activity is underway. The number of inspections to check water quality have also increased since the rains started,” a water board official said, adding that officials were visiting slums and enquiring with people about the quality of water.

Simultaneously, for an uninterrupted supply of Godavari water to Hyderabad, Rs 20 lakh emergency fund was sanctioned. “The amount of inflow in River Godavari this month was not witnessed in the last 100 years. To handle this critical situation we procured Poly Aluminum Chloride (PAC) and this chemical used to treat water, was more effective compared to Ferric Alum that is used more frequently,” the official said.

HMWS&SB draws 172 million gallons per day (MGD) of water every day from the foreshore of Yellampally Barrage near Murmur. This raw water is pumped to Bommakal and from there to the Mallaram Water Treatment Plant and the treated water is supplied to parts of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Outer Ring Road.