HYDERABAD: With the monsoon playing hide and seek and reservoirs not receiving fresh inflows with no rains in the catchment areas, Hyderabad is staring at a severe water crisis. As on today, drinking water supplies for nearly one crore population of twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and peripheral areas of Greater Hyderabad are set to last till August-end.What about the supplies after that? This is the big worry doing the rounds in the corridors of HWMS&SB and people’s minds. “If monsoon plays truant, there is every likelihood of Hyderabad facing water crisis from the second week of September,” a senior Water Board official said.Compared to last July, water levels in all the reservoirs this July are incredibly down by 12 ft, giving sleepless nights to the Water Board. Weeks after monsoon officially entered Telangana, there are no fresh inflows in the drinking water sources — Nagarjunasagar (Krishna), Sripada Yellampally (Godavari) and twin reservoirs of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar. “By this time, the levels go up by 5-10 ft in all the water sources. But, not even 1 ft of water has been added to the existing levels,” admitted director-technical, HMWS&SB, V Praveen Kumar.Senior officials surmise that the present levels in all the drinking water sources would serve the city’s needs till the end of August. The Water Board is presently supplying 166 million gallons of water per day.Highlighting the need to tackle water crisis on a warfooting, BK Sikdar, director, ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, government of India, urged officials to work out solutions. “Bearing the impending water crisis, experts and officials must come up with innovative ideas and smart solutions to overcome the problem,” he said, while addressing a seminar on water crisis in city.That the situation is grave can be guaged from the fact that levels in some reservoirs have plummeted to 12 ft and gone below 6 ft in some others. For instance, the level in Sripada Yellampally was 468 meters on July 11 last year and this year on the same day, it stood at 459 meters. “It means the water level has gone 9 meters below,” officials said.The water level in Nagarjunasagar barrage on July 11 this year stood at 507 meters. On the same day last year, it hovered at 511 meters. Nothing can be said about the water level in Manjira reservoir with the entire lakebed turning into a barren land. Singur hit a rock bottom. The level in the drinking water source stood at 1,669 ft on July 11 and on the same day last year, the level recorded was 1,697 ft.“Manjira and Singur are primarily two lifelines for the city. They are a thing of the past. The reservoirs are now being reduced to cattle grazing lakebeds,” rued a former Water Board official, pointing to official apathy.Senior officials, however, said they are optimistic about rains in the coming weeks. “If we get a bountiful spell in the next two-three weeks, the reservoirs will get copious inflows and the worst can be put behind us,” an official added.