Telangana: Instructions issued to ULBs to ensure safe and required water supply

Municipal Commissioners and engineers have been asked to coordinate with the Irrigation department to ensure timely release of water into canals

Hyderabad: With day temperatures rising steadily, the Public Health and Municipal Engineering department has issued instructions to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to ensure safe and required water supply in respective limits.

Municipal Commissioners and engineers have been asked to coordinate with the Irrigation department to ensure timely release of water into canals. They were also directed to coordinate with the Electricity department to maintain continuous power supply to water supply sources, especially for pumping.

Though sufficient water was being supplied to the ULBs, water consumption increases during summer season. Accordingly, the ULBs were being asked to take a few steps to ensure regular water supply without any hindrance, a senior Public Health official said.

This was a regular practice adopted during summer season. Like all these years, ULBs have been asked to follow a few guidelines on specific issues, the official said.

Municipal Commissioners have been instructed to arrange required capacity generators at all pumping stations, if required to ensure uninterrupted pumping. To avoid any contamination due to sewage or drainage water entering into drinking water sources, all the water sources have to be guarded.

Municipalities have been instructed to intensify monitoring at the summer storage tanks and other water supply sources to avoid contamination by bathing or animal washing.

Problematic areas

The ULBs have been directed to constitute a task team of officers comprising engineers from public health department and municipal officers to identify critical and problematic areas in respective limits. The teams have to furnish daily inspection report with special focus on checking residual chlorine in such areas.

Monitoring water distribution system

– Identifying leaks in pipelines and arresting the same to avoid wastage
– Scouring the water supply lines periodically
– Cleaning all the storage reservoirs periodically
– Checking illegal tappings
– Ensure proper chlorination in the distribution systems
– All pit taps to be closed to ensure proper distribution with required pressure and to avoid contamination