Hyderabad hotels could face limits on groundwater extraction under a proposal submitted by public policy expert Donthi Narasimha Reddy to Telangana Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju, amid concerns over dwindling water availability in the city. The representation calls for annual consumption limits, disclosure of metered water use, a ban on new hotel borewells and penalties for violations.
Reddy said Hyderabad’s hotel sector was a largely undisclosed water user. Based on standard industry benchmarks, he estimated that the city’s hotels, with between 30,000 and 45,000 rooms and occupancy levels of 60% to 80%, generated demand of 25 million to 45 million litres of water.
According to the representation, that volume could meet the domestic requirements of 300,000 to 400,000 residents. The estimate includes water sourced through borewells and tankers, in addition to piped supplies. The proposal does not indicate that the government has accepted or implemented the suggested limits.
Reddy urged the Telangana government to use its powers under the Telangana State Water, Land and Tree Act to regulate groundwater extraction by hotels. He also called for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, the Groundwater Department and the Telangana State Pollution Control Board to publish metered consumption data for hotels above a specified size.
The proposed disclosure system would cover water received through multiple sources, including piped supplies, borewells and tankers. Reddy said greater visibility over these sources was necessary because hotel consumption is not fully captured through a single supply network.
The representation proposes annual volumetric limits for individual hotels, calculated on a per-room basis and tiered according to hotel class and facilities. It also seeks sector-wide extraction ceilings for each aquifer zone, linking hotel consumption to the condition of local groundwater reserves rather than applying one uniform limit across the city.
In addition to restricting extraction, Reddy has proposed a ban on new borewells for hotels and penalties for violations of the prescribed limits. The recommendations place responsibility for monitoring across the water-supply, groundwater and pollution-control agencies.
The proposal comes as Hyderabad’s hotel sector is identified as a significant institutional water user, with demand supplied through a combination of public networks, private groundwater extraction and tanker deliveries. Any government decision would determine how consumption is measured, how limits are assigned and which agency would enforce them.
