Water supply without any ceiling order by CCC
The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has criticised an order from the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply that asked municipalities and town panchayats to release drinking water connections without any ceiling on the number in any of these local bodies.In a letter to the department, the consumer body’s secretary, K. Kathirmathiyon, has pointed out that this would lead to chaos in the local bodies as they did not have enough water to release connections across the counter.The Government had announced in the order issued last month that all the applicants who wanted water connections should be provided with these within seven days from the date of receipt of applications and that there shall be no restriction on the number of connections.If connections could not be provided within this period in a particular area due to technical feasibility, these should be given in a month.Appreciating the Government’s view that connections should be provided to all the people, the consumer body, however, pointed out in reference to the situation in Coimbatore that the quantity of water provided was far too low for such a measure.At present, the water connections were to be provided by the local bodies based on the availability of drinking water.But, already many excess connections, above the availability of water, had been provided.
Because of this, many local bodies were supplying drinking water once in 12 days to 20 days and the people had to store a meagre quantity for a long period.In such a situation, if new connections were released without any restriction and also without the required amount of water, the Government may not be able to achieve its objective of enough drinking water for all the people in any local body.Explaining the need for such a letter to the department, Mr. Kathirmathiyon pointed out that already water was supplied once a week in town panchayats in the suburbs such as Veerakeralam and Vadavalli.There was demand for new connections in the municipalities and town panchayats. But, there was no point in allowing the local bodies to release the connections without the water board increasing the quantum of supply.
Three municipalities and about 10 town panchayats south and west of the city got only about 10 million litres a day of Siruvani drinking water. This quantity was allocated in the early Nineties.The demand now was more than two-fold.If more connections were released as per the latest order, the sharing of the existing meagre quantity of water would reduce the quantum of supply for all and also increase the number of days between two supply schedules.The consumer body insisted that the number of connections should be proportionate to the availability of drinking water supplied by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board to the municipalities and town panchayats.The regularising of the excess connections already provided could be done only if the quantum was increased.Therefore, new connections also could be provided only if more water than now was provided to the local bodies, the letter said.
