Water Shortage Soon
The Coimbatore Corporation does not seem to be very comfortable with the drinking water position in the Pilloor and Siruvani dams. Silt in the dams, a steady dip in water level and the demand for more water because of the increase in the number of buildings/connections in the city has set the civic body thinking on ways to avoid scarcity during summer. Against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 100 ft, the present storage in the damA day after officials of the Corporation, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board made a joint inspection of the Pilloor Dam (on Wednesday), Mayor R. Venkatachalam said on Thursday that as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 100 ft, the present storage in the dam was only 70 ft.
was only 70 ft
What caused more concern than the dipping level was the amount of silt in the dam. Quoting electricity board officials, the Mayor said most parts of the dam had silt up to 45 ft. There was silt in the Siruvani Dam also. Water managers in the Corporation said the board wanted to remove the silt.
The Mayor, however, said there was no fear of scarcity this summer. Water level in the Siruvani Dam on Thursday was 47.86 ft as against the FRL of 67.44 ft. The first of the three intake nozzles in the Pilloor Dam and the first of the four in the Siruvani Dam were visible now, a sign of the water level coming down and the summer approaching.
“The officials say that there will not be any problem, despite one dam registering a 30 ft fall in the level and another by 20 ft,” the Mayor said. But, water managers in the Corporation were of the firm view that avoiding scarcity during summer depended much on the people. There was 5 mm rain at the Siruvani Dam on Wednesday. But, this was not going to help much as only the monsoons would help fill both the dams.
“The public must realise that more and more buildings are being provided with water, but out of the limited resource available,” Mr. Venkatachalam said. When some people used motors for unauthorised drawal of water from the lines, it led to shortage for the others.
The Mayor pointed out that more than 500 newly regularised layouts had to be provided with new water connections. This would put a lot of pressure on the Corporation as it had to provide water to all the buildings out of its maximum quota of nearly 150 million litres a day got from both the Siruvani and Pilloor schemes. The Corporation required this amount to make its assured supply of 135 litres per capita per day.
The present schemes would not help increase the daily quota from the dams. Instead, it would only reduce as the summer approached and the storage dipped. Therefore, the Corporation and the local bodies in the suburbs were working on new schemes to increase supply.“This is the situation we are in. People should understand this and desist from unauthorised drawal by using motors. We will disconnect their water lines, if they continue to use the motors,” the Mayor warned.
Mr. Venkatachalam said Assistant Engineer K. Karuppusamy and Junior Engineer M. Kathirvel of Pilloor Division and Assistant Engineer A. Senthil Baskar and Junior Engineer R. Subramaniam (Siruvani Division) would have their field-level teams monitor the respective distribution areas closely. The linemen under these engineers would have to keep a watch on all the houses or commercial buildings.
This kind of special monitoring had to be done because it was difficult to detect the use of motors. “Some motors are so small that it is easy for the people to stop the unauthorised drawal and hide these at the sight of the Corporation staff,” the Mayor said.“Sadly, people in houses with large compounds indulge in this malpractice. The watchmen alert those using the motors on the arrival of officials for a check. We will be very severe on anyone found resorting to this practise,” he said.
