Hyderabad: Private water tankers’ strike ends on HYDRAA assurance

Hyderabad: The Water Tankers’ Association of Hyderabad called off its strike on Wednesday, November 4 evening, and are restoring supplies with immediate effect.

Sharing the development, HYDRAA chairman A V Ranganath said the association members led by their president, Chandrashekar, met him on the intervention of Hyderabad district in-charge minister Ponnam Prabhakar.

He said that after taking requisite permissions from the concerned departments, the operators have agreed to collect borewater in their tankers from the PURE region, from outside the ORR region, as the latter is a densely populated area.

This would reduce the pressure on household and domestic bores in core Hyderabad city, he said.

Likewise, he said, Hyderabad is the IT hub, and PG hostels operate in a few localised pockets such as Madhapur, Gachibowli, Kukatpally, Ameerpet, and Ashok Nagar. So water tanker operators select bores close to these hubs to reduce their fuel charges. This also puts more pressure on the groundwater in these pockets.

Moreover, domestic bores are normally dug to a depth of 100-300 feet, but commercial operators go up to 1,000-1,500 feet, deploying high-powered motors. This has also been affecting the groundwater situation in densely populated areas.

He said that in areas such as Tellapur, Suraram, Jeedimetla, residents have come out in large numbers to complain about the illegal commercial drawing of water.

The agency has acted at a few places in response to these complaints, said the Commissioner, in coordination with the Water Board, Revenue, and Police to check large-scale commercial exploitation of groundwater from densely populated localities of the CURE region.

What was the strike about

Private water tanker owners staged a protest against HYDRAA over its action against illegally operated borewells. Objecting to the action, they said it had hit their livelihood.

During the agitation that ended Wednesday, operators reportedly stopped tankers on the road and emptied water in protest. They also sought an alternative solution from the government.

Get the latest updates in Hyderabad City News, Technology, Entertainment, Sports, Politics and Top Stories on WhatsApp & Telegram by subscribing to our channels. You can also download our app for Android and iOS.