Water Transfer from Peri-Urban to Urban Areas: Conflict Over Water For

Article Environment and Urbanization ASIA Water Transfer from Peri-urban 6(1) 41–58 © 2015 National Institute to Urban Areas: Conflict over Water of Urban Affairs (NIUA) SAGE Publications for Hyderabad City in South India sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: 10.1177/0975425315585194 http://eua.sagepub.com Anjal Prakash1 Sreoshi Singh2 Lieuwe Brouwer3 Abstract This article documents the conflict between peri-urban and urban water users in Mallampet, a peri- urban village adjacent to Hyderabad City. In Mallampet and adjoining villages, 15–20 tanker companies are operating, most of which are owned by the local residents of the area. The number of tanker companies fluctuates depending on the business conditions. Most of them operate without legal permission from authorities. Pumping groundwater and selling it to urban consumers requires minimal hard work and yields maximum returns. Some villagers have been able to seize this opportunity, more so because agriculture is no longer profitable. Based on the data collected from individual pumps and selected tanker companies operating in the village, estimates were made for the amount of water extracted and the revenue earned by a few wealthy and powerful people in the village who are ignorant of the dire consequences of rapid aquifer discharge. The conflict is latent at the moment because the water sellers and buyers are more powerful socially and economically, while the people who are at the receiving end do not have a voice. They are unable to prevent the extraction and sale of groundwater in order to help reduce their insecurity. Even though there are strong laws like the 2002 Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act (APWALTA) which prevents the mining of aquifers, the strong nexus between local authorities, politicians and water sellers helps bypass the law. 从城市周边向城市地区转移水资源：南印度海得拉巴市的水冲突本文记录了Mallampet城市周边和城市地区水用户之间的冲突，Mallampet是紧邻海得拉巴市的城郊村。在Mallampet和毗邻的村庄，十五到二十家水罐公司正在运营，其中大部分为该区域的居民所拥有。水罐公司的数目并不取决于经营状况。它们中的大多数是没有当局法律许可的情况下运营的。抽取地下水并把它出售给城市消费者只需要最少的辛勤工作，却能带来最大的回报。一些村民已经能够意识到并且抓住这个机会，更多的则是因为从农业中已经无法获得利益。根据从 1 Programme Coordinator, Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research, River Basins Programme, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu 2 Research Fellow, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies, India. 3 MSc Student, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Corresponding author: Anjal Prakash, Programme Coordinator, Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research, River Basins Programme, International Centre, Kathmandu, Nepal. This research was carried out in his capacity as Executive Director of SaciWATERs. Email: [email protected] 42 Environment and Urbanization ASIA 6(1) 各个泵和选定的村民经营的水罐公司那里收集的数据，可以估算出水的提取量和村里一些有财富权势的人所赚取的收入。这些人对快速抽取地下水的严重后果完全无知。目前冲突还处于潜伏状态，因为水的卖家和买家具有更强大的社会和经济地位，而承受严重后果的人则没有发言权。他们无法阻止抽取和销售地下水从而降低不安全感。即使有像2002年《安得拉邦水、土地和树木法案》那样强有力的防止地下水开采的法律，地方当局、政治家和水卖家之间的强大关系也能帮助他们绕开法律，通过与不同利益相关者的讨论，这已经非常清楚的表现出来。 Keywords Urbanisation, commercial water, Hyderabad, peri-urban Introduction Hyderabad is the sixth largest urban agglomeration in India with a population of 7.49 million according to the 2011 Census of India. Hyderabad is said to be at the forefront of India’s economic development, with an average economic growth of 8.7 per cent per year between 2004 and 2008 (Celio et al., 2010). Urbanization and economic growth have led to a large increase in urban water demand due to the real estate boom in and around the city. Water is a scarce resource in the Deccan Plateau region and most of the yearly precipitation of about 750 mm takes place in the monsoon season (Mall et al., 2006), which means that one cannot depend on it as a water resource for the entire year. Therefore, the water needs of the city of Hyderabad and its rural fringe are fulfilled by surface water, and to a lesser extent, groundwater reserves (GHMC, 2005). The water of surface water bodies like the Mir Alam Tank served the city during the sixteenth century. The Hussain Sagar, Osman Sagar, Himayat Sagar and Musi water bodies fulfilled the water needs of the city during the early part of the nineteenth century. After independence, several rivers like the Singur, Manjira and more recently the Krishna have been tapped for water to keep pace with the increasing demand, and new sources like the Godavari have been recently located for exploitation even further from Hyderabad (van Rooijen, 2011). Simultaneously, groundwater is also being extracted and certain mandals (sub-districts as known in Andhra Pradesh) adjoining the city have been classified as critical and over-exploited by the Central Groundwater Board, depending on the level of water extraction. Despite this heavy use of the available resources, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) claims that the average water supplied by the agency to different parts of the city is about 150 litres per capita per day, which is equal to the national norms for metropolitan areas (van Rooijen, 2011). The inequitable supply of water is an area of concern for the citizens of Hyderabad and is the major reason for an increase in the demand for water markets. The after-effects of urbanization have manifested in poor-quality water in the large storages, Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar, which supply water to the Hyderabad City. The amount of water drawn from these reservoirs has reduced since the 1980s because of the decline in the gross storage capacity of the reservoirs by 12 and 20 per cent, respectively. The factors affecting this process are siltation and reduced recharge from its catchment due to the developmental activities in the watershed (Ramchandraiah and Prasad, 2004; George et al., 2009). The shortage in supply is being supplemented by diverting water from the Krishna River through the implementation of the Krishna Drinking Water Scheme Phases I, II and III since 2002. The city’s water table has hit rock bottom, and its water shortage has become so intense that private tankers have Prakash et al. 43 now started targeting surface water bodies located in the surrounding areas of the city. Their operations are concentrated in areas which are in a process of transition, and have rich water sources due to the existence of surface water bodies. These peri-urban areas are situated within the metropolitan zones of the city, but many of them are outside its municipal boundaries. Because these areas are in transition, both agricultural and non-agricultural activities are carried out simultaneously, providing migrants plenty of economic opportunities, while increasing the stress on water resources due to an increasing number of users. This article documents the conflict between peri-urban and urban water users in Mallampet village, a peri-urban location adjacent to Hyderabad. The article is divided into three sections. The first section introduces the case of Mallampet village in peri-urban Hyderabad, which is one of the villages supplying water through tankers from agricultural fields to nearby industrial belts while also catering to the domes- tic water markets of the housing societies in the vicinity. The second section represents the characteris- tics of the water tanker business, its components, magnitude, client base, amount of water extracted and people’s perceptions about tanker operations. The third section concludes by highlighting the implica- tions for water security in the future due to tanker operations, and assesses the possible challenges in regulating this activity. The Rural/Peri-urban–Urban Water Transfer Conflict: A Case of Mallampet Village in Hyderabad A study by Shaban (2008) shows that about 11 per cent of the households in Hyderabad City are dependent on tanker water supply, of which 46 per cent are dependent on private tankers. The water is supplied from peri-urban areas where groundwater is purchased from farmers and transported to consumers and industries in the city. Mallampet is located about 5–6 km from the municipal boundaries of Hyderabad along a corridor towards the north and northwest of the city beyond Kukatpally. This corridor begins from Nizampet village and continues towards the north into Mallampet and its adjacent village, Bowrampet as shown in Figure 1. Mallampet is located very close to the Bollarum Industrial Area. A few years after industries began operating in this area, the water bodies and air in the vicinity started getting polluted. The villages located very close to the industrial area began complaining of health problems, crop destruction and so on. The surrounding villages in the region have also suffered similar impacts, which have led to crop failure, although the process was slower because of the relative distance. A key informant inter- view with the Sarpanch of Mallampet revealed that the local water bodies—Khatua and the Channan cheruvu (artificial lake)—had been polluted by the industries and sewage disposal from the village, respectively. According to local communities, the water of these water bodies is unsuitable for drinking. Further, the agricultural sector was also impacted. Access to surface water as a source of irrigation was limited due to the drying up of the Khatua cheruvu. Thus, borewells needed to be installed, increasing agricultural costs, while the returns were so meagre that farming could not be pursued as a full-time livelihood option. While the groundwater status deteriorated, communities have been using this water supplied by

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