Hyderabad’s water shortage is disrupting hostels, residential communities, colleges and commercial establishments, with operators in the city’s IT corridor reporting restricted supply, increased dependence on tankers and fears that prolonged scarcity could affect their ability to accommodate residents.
A private tanker strike on Tuesday intensified the situation in Madhapur, Gachibowli and Kondapur. Tankers returned to service on Wednesday, but hostel operators said the disruption exposed the vulnerability of establishments that depend on commercial supplies because municipal and Manjeera water are insufficient.
Vellampalli Mahidhar, working president of the IT Corridor Hostels Association, said nearly 90 per cent of hostels depended on commercial water tankers. He said around three lakh people in the IT corridor and six to seven lakh people across Hyderabad could be affected if the shortage continued.
“Water is a basic need. When electricity fails, we can use a generator, but there is no alternative to water. If the situation continues, operating hostels will become a major challenge,” Mahidhar said.
During Tuesday’s disruption, some hostel operators rationed water in one-hour intervals. Mahidhar said a hostel accommodating 100 residents could require three tankers of 5,000 litres each during summer. He also said shortages, which usually begin around March, had arrived in November this year.
Residential communities have introduced their own restrictions. My Home Vihanga has shut its swimming pool for the next couple of months, while a notice circulated at My Home Avatar announced a temporary suspension of domestic water supply across all blocks from 2 pm to 5 pm to conserve underground reserves. The notice attributed the measures to reduced supply from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the tanker strike, while stating that clubhouse and sewage treatment plant supplies would remain unaffected.
At Aparna Cyber Commune, residents have been asked to reduce non-essential consumption. Rajeev, a representative of the community, said it had around 500 flats and was purchasing water through tankers. The society restricted the use of certain taps, including those used for washing cars, but drinking water and regular domestic supply had not been affected so far.
The shortage has also affected residential educational institutions. Circulars issued by a couple of private colleges in Madhapur cited the water crisis while announcing temporary holidays for junior and senior students until Diwali. The institutions, however, said the closures were part of their regular Diwali holidays.
Venkat Sainath of the Hyderabad School Parents Association said most residential institutions had shut until Diwali because of the water crisis, although managements were not explicitly stating this. He said warnings about the shortage had circulated for nearly a month and called for government intervention before more residential institutions and businesses were forced to suspend operations.
Hotels and restaurants have begun conservation measures, although the situation has not become unmanageable for them so far, according to industry representative Sailesh Mathur. Some establishments are displaying notices asking customers not to waste water, installing self-closing taps and recycling water through sewage treatment plants.
Mathur said these measures would keep the situation manageable until January. Mahidhar, meanwhile, called for alternative water sources even at higher costs, as tanker operators increasingly depend on supplies from the outskirts, where local communities have objected to groundwater extraction.
