Shortage of ground water and wilting plants at the Coimbatore Corporation’s parks came in for discussion at the Coimbatore Corporation Council’s meeting recently. Ward 72 Councillor J. Sasirekha said that the Corporation needed to sink additional borewells to water plants in the Senior Citizens Park, VOC Park and Children’s Park.
She later told The Hindu that the Corporation pumped water to the park from the borewell on Avinashi Road. The borewell supplied water for close to eight hours a day to water the plants in the parks. With drop in water level, the yield has dwindled.
A Corporation source said that the water yield from the borewell was only for 20 minutes and this was not enough to water the plans in the parks, which together had over 1,500 trees, with a majority of them in the VOC Park.
To immediately address the problem, the Corporation had diverted water from a borewell on the Kadalakara Sandhu (K.K. Lane).
The Lane had two borewells, of which one was dysfunctional because miscreants had stolen the starter.
Now the Corporation had replaced the starter in the motor to pump water to the parks.
The source said that the Corporation would use the other borewell to pump water to the residents of Thandu Mariamman Street, K.K. Lanes I, II and III and a couple of more streets and this diversion would not affect their supply.
The parks attract over 4,000 visitors on weekdays and almost twice the number on weekends.
Ms. Sasirekha said that the Corporation should protect the plants because minus them the Parks had very little recreational value. And they were one of the very few health entertainment centres in the city.
She wanted the Corporation to sink new borewells to protect the plants and keep the parks going as entertainment centres.
She also said that the Corporation could try reviving the borewell on Avinashi Road using water harvesting technology.
The nearby Corporation Zoo is not affected, though, as it has a dedicated borewell.
