Corp Fingers Crossed For Siruvani Water

A view of the Siruvani dam which supplies drinking water to Coimbatore city. The Coimbatore Corporation is keeping its fingers crossed over which way its fortunes will swing, in view of the South West Monsoon not turning vigorous enough to bring a good inflow into the Siruvani Dam. One half of the city and the suburbs along its western and southern boundaries depend on the Siruvani scheme for drinking water.

“There is continuous rain at the dam. But, it is not heavy enough for a huge inflow. There is only a trickle in the falls that normally provide a huge amount of water when monsoon turns vigorous,” Mayor R. Venkatachalam said on Friday. The dam recorded 20 mm rain on Wednesday and 15 mm on Thursday. The continuous rain, however, helped in raising the water level by four feet over the last five days. It was 33 ft, as against the full reservoir level of a little more than 67 ft.

“There are indications of heavy rain in four to five days. We hope that the dam will fill up and water may even overflow this year also,” the Mayor said. The Corporation was, however, not happy with the heavy silt in the dam. “There is silt for almost seven feet and this eats into the storage capacity,” the Mayor said. He explained that out of the 67 ft full reservoir level, almost 10 feet of water could not be used as it had to be left for animals in the Siruvani forests. Their share of water comes through a canal.

“Actually, the Corporation and the muncipalities and the suburbs can use only water available up to 50 ft,” he said. “We have been calling for the removal of the silt. Water board officials of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu need to discuss this problem as it reduces the share of drinking water to the local bodies,” the Mayor said. (The dam is located in Kerala, just across its border with Tamil Nadu.) At present, the dam would appear to have filled up quickly. But, seven feet of water holding space was actually lost to silt in the reservoir.

“We need the permission of the Kerala Government to remove the silt and restore full water holding capacity. Otherwise, the city and the suburbs that may be added to it will run into severe scarcity. There is already a steady rise in the demand for water in these areas.” The Mayor said that the Corporation was already facing the pressure of providing 20 million litres a day (mld) to more than 500 layouts that were regularised recently. The Pilloor scheme was the source for the most of these areas that were in the eastern parts of the city.

“We have given individual water connections to houses in these layouts. At a time when we need more water to meet the demand from these areas, the drawal from the Pilloor Dam has been reduced to 59 mld from the usual 63 mld. This is because silt is being removed from the dam,” he said. Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage sources said water was being released from the dam into River Bhavani to enable the removal of silt. This expected to enable total storage in the dam that had a full reservoir level of 100 ft. The Mayor said anxiety over rain and water supply position would ease only if the Rs.113-crore Pilloor Phase II water scheme was implemented. Delay in implementation would hit the city badly in terms of water supply and the Corporation in the form of cost escalation. “We need a far-sighted approach to dealing with the water situation,” the Mayor said.

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