Unseasonal surge: HMWSSB faces summer-like tanker demand in October

Hyderabad is witnessing an unprecedented rise in water-tanker demand towards the end of the monsoon, with daily bookings reaching 5,000 to 8,000. HMWSSB officials fear worsening shortages from November as groundwater levels fall and reservoir storage declines across the city.

Hyderabad: In an unprecedented shift, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) is battling a massive, unseasonal spike in tanker demand towards the end of monsoon.

Daily water tanker bookings have skyrocketed to an average of 5,000 to 8,000 requests per day, effectively doubling the usual off-season demand of 800 to 1,500 every day.

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A severe rainfall deficit and rapidly collapsing groundwater tables across Hyderabad and Cyberabad have completely exhausted and dried up over 20,000 localised borewells, particularly in high-rise IT corridors.

Already reeling under a massive unseasonal surge in water demand, HMWSSB officials are on high alert as a severe winter shortage looms. Water Board’s operations and technical teams, who are tackling the water supply system and tanker management, fear the situation will become entirely unmanageable from November onwards, as water levels at the critical Singur and Manjeera reservoirs begin to deplete sharply.

Residential hubs and IT corridors—including Gachibowli, Madhapur, and Kondapur—remain the hardest hit, forcing thousands of complexes to rely entirely on official HMWSSB supply.

The HMWSSB tanker-booking data showed the sharpest demand increases in Boduppal (2,132%), LB Nagar (1,284%) and Manikonda (769%), Durgam Cheruvu (606%), while it is slightly lower at Kukatpally (185%), Alwal and Malkajgiri (173%), Sahebnagar (167%), Quthbullapur (162%), SR Nagar (132%) and Marredpally (104%).

HMWSSB metrics accessed show the sharp surge in demand for water tankers, with water tanker bookings going up to 62,565 in October, registering a 233% increase compared to 18,806 bookings recorded in the same month last year.

A senior HMWSSB official said, “The demand for tankers usually spikes from March to July-end. This year, however, the city had moved directly from February’s winter monsoon into peak-summer panic, accelerating the crisis by eight months”.

Senior engineering officials at the water board described Hyderabad’s current tanker-demand situation as unprecedented. Some officials with decades of experience managing the city’s water supply concede they had never witnessed such a crisis. “There usually is some respite between the monsoon and winter because of lower tanker demand, with demand typically beginning in February or March,” a senior official said.

The water board currently delivers tankers within 24 hours (from the time of booking), but officials expect delivery times to rise to 48 hours or more as demand increases.

Top 10 areas-Demand surge in percentage (Tanker Bookings)

Boduppal: 2,132%

L B Nagar: 1,284%

Manikonda: 769%

Durgam Cheruvu: 606%

Meerpet: 515%

Kapra and Uppal: 302%

Asifnagar: 295%

Rajendranagar: 284%

Hafeezpet: 252%

Kukatpally: 185%