Hyderabad heads into another unpredictable monsoon, a silent water crisis is deepening below ground.
Despite regulatory mandates, a vast majority of new residential buildings in the city continue to bypass the construction of rainwater harvesting systems raising urgent concerns over the sustainability of the city’s groundwater resources.Between 2020 and 2025, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) sanctioned nearly 69,575 building permits. Yet, only 23,239 homeowners—just one-third—have complied with the legal requirement to construct soak pits, a basic rainwater harvesting mechanism aimed at replenishing groundwater. Officials admit that poor enforcement and negligible follow-up inspections have led to widespread violations.
Under the Water, Land and Trees Act (WALTA), every residential building occupying over 200 square metres is required to include a rainwater harvesting structure. However, experts say compliance is more often the exception than the rule. Worse still, occupancy certificates (OCs), which should be contingent upon proof of RWHS construction, are routinely granted without verification—or simply not applied for at all.In the last financial year alone, the GHMC issued 11,509 building permissions. Of these, only 4,578 property owners bothered to build the required soak pits. Just 2,036 among them received OCs. Over the past five years, the total number of occupancy certificates granted stands at a mere 10,000, suggesting that large swathes of the city’s real estate is functioning outside the boundaries of full regulatory compliance.
City planners and water board officials are sounding the alarm. “The rate of groundwater extraction in Hyderabad is far outpacing natural recharge, especially in high-density zones where concretisation has erased green cover,” said a senior official from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB). The official noted that the city witnessed a sharp spike in tanker water demand this summer as borewells in several areas ran completely dry.The impact is not merely environmental. Low-income households in borewell-dependent neighbourhoods have borne the brunt of the depletion, forced to pay out of pocket for private water tankers. In areas like Alwal, Dilsukhnagar, and parts of LB Nagar, groundwater levels have dropped below sustainable levels, affecting not only daily life but also long-term climate resilience.
The GHMC has now issued fresh advisories to households without RWHS installations, asking them to build the soak pits ahead of the monsoon. The HMWSSB has also rolled out a technical support programme, deploying trained geologists to guide residents through the installation process.But enforcement remains the missing piece. Without stricter penalties or incentives tied to building approvals and certifications, experts fear that rainwater harvesting will remain a good idea on paper, not in practice.
In a rapidly growing city grappling with the dual challenges of urbanisation and climate volatility, rainwater harvesting is not just a civic responsibility—it is an ecological necessity. For Hyderabad to avoid a deeper water crisis, the system needs more than just rules; it needs the will to implement them.
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