Water board begins 100 day survey to detect illegal connections
HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) has launched a 100 day special drive to verify household water connections, curb illegal usage and strengthen transparency in water consumption across the city.
Officials said the board lifts water from distant sources, treats it and supplies it across the metropolis, making accurate consumption data essential for planning and regulation. The campaign, titled the CAN survey, aims to document every connection at the field level.
Special teams will visit every house to determine whether a connection is legal or illegal, and whether its category is domestic or commercial. They will examine pipeline size, the number of outlets and usage, and upload details immediately through a dedicated mobile application.
If a building has a domestic connection but commercial activity is being carried out, the category will be shifted to commercial. Illegal connections will attract notices, followed by penalties of at least three years’ charges before regularisation.
Verification across all sections
The water board has instructed managers in every section to complete the survey of all connections within 100 days. Under each manager’s supervision, teams are collecting customer numbers, meter details, built up area, number of rooms, number of floors and the existing category of each connection.
They will check whether the connection complies with norms, identify illegal pipelines, fix meters where required and verify pipeline size. Any mismatch in size will lead to revised billing. The teams will also identify households with multiple connections.
If commercial operations are found in premises listed as domestic, notices will be issued for category change. After the field survey, the vigilance wing will conduct a sample re-survey to cross-check the findings, officials said.
14.36 lakh connections under review
The HMWSSB currently has 14.36 lakh water connections within its limits. About 85% fall under the domestic category, while the remaining 15% are commercial, industrial or other types. Each month, 10,000–15,000 new connections are approved.
Commercial connections, however, remain limited to 54,000, prompting concerns about domestic connections being misused for business activity. In several areas, consumers are reported to have disabled meters and paid only nominal bills.
Officials said the survey is aimed at identifying such irregularities and ensuring correct billing.
