#WhatTheFAQ: What was GO 111 and why did Telangana scrap it?

Environmentalists in Telangana are alarmed by the TRS government's decision to do away with the protection accorded to two crucial reservoirs. Here's all you need to know
Pic: Edexlive
Pic: Edexlive

The Telangana government has revoked Government Order 111, raising a hue and cry from critics who believe that it will spell the death knell for two Nizam-era reservoirs in the state. The KCR government constituted a committee to look into the relevance of the GO in the present times and after the committee tabled its report, the decision to scrap the order was taken on Wednesday, April 13, during a Cabinet meeting.

What is GO 111? Why was it revoked? And are the fears of the opposition justified? We have go at all these questions.

Who introduced Government Order 111?
The GO was introduced on March 8, 1996, by the then-united Andhra Pradesh government with the intent to protect two reservoirs, the Himayat Sagar and the Osman Sagar, for drinking water.

What did the order say?
The order restricted any industrial activity in a 10 km radius of the reservoirs in order to prevent any pollution of potable water. It stated that 90 per cent of the land should be used for conservation only. The protected area under GO 111 covered 1.32 lakh acres of land in mandals around Hyderabad. This amounted to 84 villages in the mandals of Shamshabad, Chevella, Rajendranagar and Moinabad, among others.
 
Why did the current Telangana government revoke it?
In 2018, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government led by K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), in response to concerns from farmers and industrialists about being unable to develop the significant area that the order protects. KCR has called the reservoirs redundant and has said that Hyderabad no longer depends on them for its water needs, as it now has access to water from the Krishna and Godavari rivers.

What are the two reservoirs under question?
The two reservoirs were a part of the flood control system built on the Musi river by Nizam-era ruler Mir Osman Ali after the flood of 1908 that devastated Hyderabad. The Chief Engineer of the project was M Visvesvaraya and under his guidance, another noted engineer Nawab Ali Nawaz Jung Bahadur built the Osman Sagar reservoir in 1920 on the Musi river. The Himayat Sagar took shape on a tributary of the river called Esi in 1927.

Why are environmentalists opposing the move?
KCR claims that Hyderabad no longer depends on these two reservoirs for drinking water. However, as reported by The New Indian Express, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) had tapped into these two reservoirs in 2019 as water supply ran short in two other reservoirs. Environmentalists claim that clearing the way for industrial activity around the Osman Sagar and the Himayat Sagar will cause Hyderabad to lose a reliable source of drinking water. Additionally, the reservoirs also serve the purpose of controlling flooding of the city, parts of which were derailed by floods as recently as in 2020. The threat of this happening every year in the months of October and November will become very real if GO 111 is scrapped, claim environmentalists.

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