Saviour For Coimbatore
A view of Siruvani dam which is now playing saviour for the civic body.But, it is true that the Siruvani drinking water scheme is now playing saviour for the civic body. In contrast to its image of a scarcity-hit scheme, thrust on it by monsoon failure from 1999 to 2003, the Siruvani Dam is now chipping in with three million litres a day for areas in the city that actually come under the Pilloor scheme.Probably, the Coimbatore Corporation itself is not able to believe this.
Mayor R. Venkatachalam explains that this arrangement has been done to offset the shortage in supply of Pilloor water in the eastern parts of the city. The Siruvani scheme serves one section of the city and the Pilloor scheme provides water to the other, mostly in the northern and eastern parts. During the scarcity days in 2000 and 2001, the Corporation had established a link between the Pilloor main line and a Siruvani overhead tank to divert 15 million litres of Pilloor water every day to the Siruvani-served areas.
Now, the old Siruvani supply lines in Pappanaickenpalayam, Sidhapudur and a part of Ganapathy have been opened to provide Siruvani water to these areas. Their quota of Pilloor water is, in turn, provided to the scarcity-hit eastern parts beyond Singanallur. A week ago, a meeting of top Corporation authorities in the East Zone office decided to provide Siruvani water to these areas, as members of the wards in the eastern parts of the city complained that Pilloor water was supplied only once in eight days.
Their complaint was that when areas under the Siruvani scheme itself got water on alternate days, it was sad that the Pilloor areas had poor supply. “It is fortunate that the old Siruvani lines are still in good condition. This helps us make vital adjustments that can keep everyone happy,” says the Mayor. This arrangement will continue till the problems in the eastern wards are sorted out. This can even continue till the South West Monsoon in June, without the quota for the Siruvani scheme areas getting affected, says the Mayor.
The water level in the Siruvani Dam is 44.28 ft as against the full reservoir level of 67.44 ft. And, the drawal is 85 million litres a day. Of this, 68 to 70 million litres are for the city. Water supply officials in the Corporation, however, feel that the problems in the East Zone are not because of the storage in the Pilloor Dam. It has 76 ft of water as against the full reservoir level of 100 ft. The city gets its usual share of 64 million litres every day from the dam.
The officials say the poor carrying capacity of the old supply lines is the problem. This prevents balanced distribution. These lines had been provided more than 25 years ago when the scarcity-hit areas were under a municipality. These should be replaced with good lines, if proper supply has to be made, they say.
The Mayor says he has asked officials to ensure that all the 454 bore wells across the city function properly. “People must be encouraged to use bore well water for all purposes other than cooking and drinking. We do see an increasing number of people using bore well supply.Therefore, the Corporation also has to ensure that these run smoothly,” he says. Five new bore wells have been ordered to be sunk in East Zone with Mayor’s funds and two in North Zone with general funds.
