Nearly half of the city and three surrounding municipalities will have to go without water on Wednesday. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) sprang a nasty surprise on citizens by announcing this decision at the eleventh hour giving no time for people to store water. Most people living in areas which would get no water went to sleep blissfully unaware that the taps would go dry in the morning. The Water Board supplies 150 million gallons of water per day from Krishna water project. While 90 MGD comes from Phase-I, another 60 MGD is routed from Phase-II. On Tuesday, the HMWS&SB announced cryptically through a press note that there would be no water supply from Krishna phase-I and II because of the sudden closure of the Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project Canal for repairs. Using liberal officialese, the Water Board said areas to be affected included Operation and Maintenance Divisions I, II, IV, V, parts of Divisions VI, X, and the entire Tarnaka section, besides the municipalities of Rajendranagar, L B Nagar and Uppal. This means half of the city. While O&M Divisions I and II cover the entire Old City and its surroundings, division IV includes localities of Red Hills, Lakdikapul and its surroundings. Likewise, Division V covers Narayanaguda, Chikkadpally, Adikmet and its surrounding areas and Division VI includes parts of Prashasan Nagar, Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills. The water board director (technical), Mr S.P. Sarma, justified the last-minute alert by saying that engineers of the irrigation department needed to take up some urgent repairs on the canal.