Water shortage hits Hyderabad colleges and hostels; students sent home until Diwali

Water shortages across Hyderabad's CURE region have disrupted residential colleges and hostels, with Sri Chaitanya and Narayana campuses announcing holidays until Diwali. Osmania University is also preparing for reduced water supply after receiving notice from HMWSSB about shorter supply hours

Hyderabad: The water crisis in the Core Urban Region Economy (CURE) region due to the El Niño impact has begun affecting educational institutions and hostels, forcing residential colleges to declare temporary holidays.

Meanwhile, Osmania University is gearing up for an acute water shortage as the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) informed the university about a cut in water supply duration.

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Both Sri Chaitanya and Narayana Colleges in and around Madhapur on Tuesday announced temporary holidays for their residential campuses until Diwali. With managements declaring holidays students rushed to Metro Stations, particularly around Hitec City to reach bus and railway stations to go home.

In circulars, the institutions asked parents to take their wards from the colleges by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. The residential campuses are facing a shortage of water for drinking, kitchen, bathing and other daily needs.

So far, colleges have been depending on private water tankers to meet their daily requirements. However, action by officials against tanker operators affected supplies forcing colleges to announce holidays.

Apart from these campuses, nearly 10 Narayana Junior Colleges in Madhapur and Ayyappa Society have also declared temporary closure until Diwali. Sri Chaitanya management has also announced home-sick holidays for students in several of its branches in the city. Many students have already left for their homes.

While colleges announced closure till Diwali, they are yet to decide on reopening date. They informed students that reopening date will be communicated in the due course. To ensure that students do not miss out on academics due to college closure, managements decided to hold online classes every day.

The water crisis has also affected private hostels in the CURE region. Hostels, which are dependent on private tankers, are struggling to meet the daily water needs.

OU sources said following information from the HMWSSB regarding cut in water supply duration the university clubbed some hostels that are facing a water shortage issue.

“We shifted several students to hostels that do not have a water shortage. Since the university has a lot of lung space and borewells, we are not anticipating a water crisis situation,” sources added.