HYDERABAD, Dec 31: Residents of Hyderabad are still demanding drinking water in many areas as the water crisis has worsened because of an acute shortage for the past four days.

People have been facing problems since Friday in Latifabad units No 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Gari Khata, Circular Building, Risala Road, Saddar, Tilak Incline, Jacob Road, Liberty Chowk, Pak colony, Pathan Colony, Sarfaraz colony, Hirabad, Hussainabad, Sheedi village, Guddu Chowk, Paretabad, Phulelli and others.

A resident of Latifabad No. 8, Mohammad Hadi, said there was not a drop of water since Friday in his locality. He said that when he started a water pumping machine, it drew contaminated and foul-smelling water.

He said he was filling his underground tank by fetching water in buckets from a neighbouring house which had a well where many people were standing in a queue.

He said people were paying water and sewerage bills, but they had to suffer often when Hesco disconnected power supply to the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) due to non-payment of bills.

He said that almost the entire sewerage system in the district had been damaged and sewage was seeping into water supply lines. People kept on checking if there was sewage mixed in water.

Sajid Jalali, a resident of Tilak Incline, said people had been protesting continuously against non-supply of water, but government officials were negotiating with one another instead of resolving their problems.

He said some people of his area were looking for wells while some fetched water from far-off places to store it for daily use.

Wasa MD Saleemuddin said power supply had been restored late on Sunday night and the system would take time to fill water lines throughout Hyderabad because one-day disruption of water takes 2-3 days to normalise the supply in the district.

He admitted that there were complaints in several localities, but people of those localities would get proper supply from tomorrow onwards.

He said filter plants at Hala Naka, Jamshoro road, Paretabad and Latifabad No 4 supplied normally 60 million gallons per day while the city needed 80 million gallons a day.

He said Wasa was already facing a shortage because water supply to Wasa was suspended for 16 days (Dec 25 to Jan 11) by the irrigation department because of desilting and repair of canals.

But despite the shortage, he said, Wasa managed to supply 60 million gallons water to people from its storage tanks, although Wasa would have to face criticism from consumers in the last days before Jan 11 when Wasa tanks would supply less water.

He said that during suspension of water supply from the irrigation department, Wasa managed to supply 40-45 million gallons to consumers daily instead of 60 million gallons on routine basis.

PROTEST: A number of residents belonging to Prince Ali Road, Massan Road and Lohar Mohalla protested against non-supply of water for the past four days.

Angry youths burnt old tyres and blocked road, suspending vehicular traffic for two hours.

They were chanted slogans against the government, Wasa and Hesco. They threatened to widen protests and block the main Anaj Mandi Road if proper water supply was not restored to their localities immediately.