Some officials of the Water Board seem to have found an easy way to solve the problem of water contamination in the city. Citizens complain that they have received SMSes from officials stating that the water pollution complaints lodged by them have been attended to and the problem solved.

“I was shocked to receive the SMS on my mobile phone stating that the water pollution problem in my area has been solved. How is it possible when no official has visited my area? What’s more, I am the complainant and none of the officials contacted me to even cross check or confirm whether the water pollution complaint has been attended to before sending me that SMS,” said C. Shankar, a resident of Old Ghansmandi.

Commercial borewells in residential areas are guzzling precious ground water. As a result, the domestic borewells in surrounding houses and apartments are going dry, causing utter inconvenience to citizens. As per the Water Air Land and Trees (WALTA) Act, commercialisation of borewell water is not allowed in residential areas or city limits.

Citizens claim that despite lodging complaints, officials are not taking action against tanker operators who are selling precious groundwater. One such “commercial bore” in the midst of a residential locality near a private dairy farm in Dabeerpura in the old city,

In just a week’s time, between May 7 and May 13, citizens have lodged 145 complaints of water pollution with the customer care centre of the Water Board. Delayed and scarce supply of water during summer is a common complaint. The complaints have come from even the upmarket Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Himayatnagar, Khairatabad and Punjagutta.

The city’s water problem is turning acute as a large number of borewells have dried up, with experts attributing the worsening situation to the absence of rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures. Hyderabad’s residents primarily depend on groundwater for all purposes barring drinking and cooking. With the groundwater table depleting fast, experts said the main villains are the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Water Board, the two civic agencies that failed to implement the RWH pits scheme.

Hyderabadis are victims of perpetual noise pollution according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. Data pertaining to ambient noise level from continuous monitoring stations set up by the CPCB concludes that the city residents are subjected to high noise levels at all times.

These stations set up at five different locations show that irrespective of the location, whether residential, commercial, or sensitive zones, and irrespective of the timing, i.e, day or night, readings are way above the safety standard and can thus have dangerous impacts on people’s health. In April, the average noise level in Jubilee Hills,

People forced to leave their vehicles on the road because of lack of parking space in commercial/residential buildings will soon be able to drive to higher floors and park safely.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has recommended to the State government to permit multi-level parking in all buildings. The decision to relax rules regarding development of parking space was taken following a representation by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India-Tamil Nadu.

The city-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has been selected to be a part of a three-member consortia to conduct research in advanced biofuels and solar energy. The purpose: to reduce our heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

This Indo-US Joint Clean Energy Research Centre is a result of the Manmohan Singh-Barack Obama meet on ‘US India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy’ in November 2011.

Even though e-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules have come into force from Tuesday, the AP Pollution Control Board is still gearing up for implementation and strict enforcement of these rules with a framework of guidelines to be followed by manufacturers of e-products.

The Union ministry of environment and forests had announced e-waste rules way back in June 2011 under the Environment Protection Act. This would be implemented in letter and spirit only after the APPCB prepares a draft explaining “how to ensure implementation and check violation” of the norms.

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board has leveled allegations of pollution against various bulk drug units manufacturing drugs in excess of the permitted quantities.

The charges also include pharmaceutical firms responsible for unauthorised manufacture of these drugs. Despite permission being taken to manufacture a certain quantity and category of drugs, these units allegedly exceed the prescribed limit, by more than 30 per cent in certain cases. The huge amount of resultant effluents are not treated and the excess drugs, according to the APPCB, add to the pollution in the city.

Citizens of the peripheral areas in Hyderabad will continue to suffer drinking water shortage for at least two more years due to a delay in the implementation of the Krishna Phase-III, as the state government has sanctioned a meagre Rs 30 crore for execution of the Rs 1,670 crore project.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has little money to take up works on the Krishna Phase-III, and the Water Board is already mortgaging its properties to raise loans for the execution of the Godavari drinking water project for Hyderabad city.