A division bench comprising Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the AP High Court issued notices to the state government and the HMWS&SB on a PIL against the decision to enhance water tariff. Forum for Good Governance secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy, filed the PIL contending that the decision is against to Article 21 of the Constitution.

The city’s drinking water distribution network consisting of Krishna, Manjira, Singur, Osmansagar and Himayatsagar and the proposed Godavari will be interlinked. Interlinking is crucial as water from any source can be diverted to areas facing shortage. For example, there were complaints of foul smelling water from Osmansagar and Himayatsagar two years back as the water level had reached dead storage levels. Krishna water was then diverted to the areas that were fed by these two reservoirs as they were interlinked.

Extension of metro up to Nedumbassery under consideration

Executing the Kochi Metro Rail project as a Centre-State joint venture scheme has numerous advantages over implementing it as a public-private partnership project. Elaborating on the disadvantages of including private stakeholders in the construction, experts in the mass-rapid transportation sector,

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board is ready for the visit of the Parliamentary standing committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests led by Dr T. Subbarami Reddy.

The Board is quite relieved that the officials are not being taken to task, in fact, it is now pinning their hopes on small and medium enterprises availing of the incentives offered by the Committee to relocate to areas beyond the Outer Ring Road in an effort to reduce pollution.

A drinking water crisis is looming large over the Cantonment areas while the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the Secunderabad Cantonment Board spar over payment of water connection charges. A major water pipeline was laid from Mahindra Hills to Karkhana. The agreement between the two public utilities was that the Water Board would supply 10 lakhs gallons of water per day through the new line, which is connected to the Krishna Phase-II line at Mahindra Hills.

Finally, lakhs of families living in the colonies around Jawaharnagar dumping yard can hope to breathe fresh air as Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (REEL) will start trial runs on segregation, composting and scientific disposal of garbage from January 18.

For the first time, the process of segregating the waste into degradable and non-degradable before being disposed off in a scientific manner, will start, gradually putting an end to the problem of air and ground water pollution in the area, as till date garbage is being dumped without segregation and precautions to avoid environmental hazards.

The city of Hyderabad has over-exploited its groundwater resources to such an extent that experts from the ground water department have warned the state authorities of an imminent water crisis in the city.

In fact, the water level has taken a nose dive of approximately four metres (3.88 metres) since last year.

Ground water levels are depleting fast in the State. Latest studies by the ground water department reveal that all districts in the state have witnessed a critical fall in the water table. Dr K. Venugopal, joint director, ground water department told Deccan Chronicle that of all the 23 districts covered by the study from November 2010 to November 2011, the depth of ground water had dropped the most in Prakasam district. Here the ground water level has dropped by 5.32 metres below the earlier levels, followed by a drop of 5.28 metres in Ranga Reddy district.

Noise levels in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are touching alarming levels with the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board ignoring the problem. While reports prepared by the Board itself say that residents of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are being exposed to high levels of sound, little has been done to tackle this. Authorities, while expressing helplessness, refused to comment on the issue.

The Water Board supplies 340 million gallons of water every day in the city, but is collecting bills for only 220 MGD. It does not have an account of 120 MGD of water it is supplying daily in the city. As a result, the Board is getting revenue of only Rs 35 crore per month for 220 MGD, and is losing another Rs 15 crore that it should be getting for the 120 MGD that is unaccounted. Officials said this huge quantity of water is going waste due to leakages in the distribution system, and also due to a large number of illegal connections.