As per the State government’s submission to the Telangana High Court, the GO 111 restrictions on the twin reservoirs of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar in Hyderabad will remain in effect until the expert committee that was constituted submits its report and a new set of guidelines is issued by the government.
Under GO 69, issued on April 12, 2022, the expert committee consists of the Managing Director of HMWS&SB, the Special Chief Secretaries of MAUD, Finance, Irrigation, the Member Secretary of the Telangana State Pollution Control Board, and the Director of HMDA (Planning).
In accordance with GO 111, dated March 8, 1996, polluting industries, major hotels, residential colonies, and other establishments that produce pollution are prohibited in the catchment area of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs up to 10 kilometers from FTL, covering 84 villages.
Municipal Administration Special Chief Secretary Kumar filed a counter to a PIL in which he said that with the issue of GO 69, the restrictions imposed by GO 111 were lifted because Hyderabad city’s drinking water requirements are no longer dependent on the twin reservoirs as they were when GO 111 was issued.
It was originally intended to conserve the catchment area of these two water bodies, which were at the time Hyderabad’s primary water source.
According to information provided by HMWS&SB, when the aforementioned GO was issued, these two reservoirs accounted for 27.59% of the installed capacity.
“When the aforementioned GO was issued, these two reservoirs held 27.59% of the installed capacity for drinking water,” Municipal Administration special chief secretary Arvind Kumar said.
Due to an increase in installed drinking water capacity from 145 to 602 and an additional 344 currently being built, the drawback reliability of these lakes is now less than 1.25%, and they are no longer a source of drinking water for Hyderabad.
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