An internal assessment done by the HMWSSB (Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board) revealed that about 38% of water was unaccounted for, of which about 20 million gallons of water is ascertained to be physical losses at customer premises during supply timings, which is sufficient to quench the thirst of nearly 6 lakh population. These losses can only be reduced effectively through involving public and educating them and making it into a people’s movement, rather than only through penal action.  To address the above issue and provide solution to the same, a programme has been designed involving citizens of Hyderabad viz., Water awareness and Leadership Campaign.

WaLC Alliance is a people’s movement with an appeal to action on reduction of wastage of water, economizing water use and promoting ground water recharge to conserve it for future generations in the Hyderabad City (Telangana State, India).

Total amount of Grant received / spent during the year :  Rs.7,25,000 / Rs.4,99,344

Objectives of WaLC :

• To nurture the responsible citizen and volunteer people’s action to address water supply related issues in the city of Hyderabad, contributing to conservation of precious water.
• WaLC Alliance will bring people together and their public representatives to promote leadership on urban water issues and conservation.
• Advocate for the recycle and recharge of water in the city of Hyderabad.
• To act as an interface; to integrate technical, economic and social dimensions of water.

In order to bring awareness in the citizens of Hyderabad City, HMWSSB sought the help of NGOs and as a pilot project to be implemented, SR Nagar division has been proposed and two NGOs were involved in the implementation of the project, of which MARI was one of the NGO.

After several meetings and discussions held during October, the program has been initiated from 1^st November 2019 in SR Nagar division-VII.  A total of four sections with 22 dockets with 19,056 connections were allotted to MARI for awareness creation and water auditing at customer premises.

Activities undertaken

• Household baseline survey
• Water use Auditing
• Awareness on water conservation
• Listing of unauthorized connections
• Motivation to fix up taps / bib-cocks
• Colour branding to each house based on the assessment
• Identification of issues related to bills
• Representing issues to concerned officers
• Holding Rallies / Meetings

Each connection / household is marked with a water drop in four colour codes to reveal their water use efficiency. Red colour denotes maximum water is getting wasted at the customer premises; orange denotes moderate wastage; green denotes that there is no wastage and blue denotes there is water conservation at household level.  While Branding (colour code) is completed in 14 Dockets, 81.5% of the connections were marked overall by the end of March, 2020.  Due to lockdown, the programme has been stopped on 23^rd March 2020.

Abstract of Issues identified and Meetings held