Water Level @ Siruvani Dam
The Coimbatore Corporation is neither apprehensive nor too happy over the water level in the Siruvani Dam that provides drinking water to one half of the city and suburbs south and west of it. The water level has only been crawling upwards for the last couple of weeks. This is in contrast to the situation last year: water had been overflowing consecutively for more than two months during this time.
On Monday, the water level in the dam was a little more than 56 ft, as against the full reservoir level of more than 67 ft. “There is no problem as of now,” says Mayor R. Venkatachalam. But, the Corporation is definitely not happy over the excruciatingly slow climb in the level. “We need some torrential rain at Mannarkad in Palakkad District of Kerala where the catchments lie and the dam is located,” he explains, to point out how much the scheme is dependent on the South West Monsoon. Only such heavy spells can bring more water to the dam from an overflowing Mukthikulam in the upper reaches of the Siruvani hills.
Scepticism seems to be gripping the Corporation in terms of an overflow and this is because of the rainfall falling well short of the requirement. The rainfall has hovered around 2 mm to 10 mm from August 22 to September 1. It has touched double figures only on two days (see table).The Mayor says that the Corporation is able to meet the demand for water in the city with alternate day supply.
“We get 78 million litres a day (mld) from Siruvani Dam and 60 mld from Pilloor Dam. The Siruvani scheme should actually provide 87 mld to the city and the Pilloor scheme 65 mld. But, the city is now provided with only 78 mld from Siruvani Dam as a precautionary measure because of inadequate rain. Water comes from the dam to the city’s main service reservoir by gravity. If 87 mld is provided, it may result in wastage of water. The present drawal is ideal for making adequate supply on alternate days, says the Mayor. As for the internal supply system in the city, the Mayor says efforts are taken to ensure that there is no loss of drinking water because of damage in the supply lines.
The Mayor says a generator will be installed at a water tank on Church Road near Saibaba Colony as pumping for supply to five or six wards is hit by power supply disruption. “These wards have 8,000 to 10,000 house connections. Many apartments have bulk connections that consume a huge amount of water,” he points out. So, even to maintain regular supply on alternate days, a generator should be installed. Otherwise, drinking water will get scarce because of disruption in power supply. “I have requested the Corporation Commissioner to sanction funds for the generator,” he says.
