The Coimbatore Corporation has decided to stop issuing fresh water connections.
The move, taken at Friday’s Council meeting in the presence of Mayor S.M. Velusamy, follows the rather drastic fall in water level in the Siruvani Dam and the resultant drop in water supply to the city.
Corporation Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy told reporters that on Friday the Corporation received only 37 million litres (mld) as against the regular supply of 85 mld. This less-than-half supply would only worsen in the coming days as the existing water would meet only 40 days’ requirements.
This poor storage level was on account of the bad South West Monsoon and worse North East Monsoon, none of which had given the expected level of water.
The Commissioner said that stopping new water connections was one of the measures the civic body had proposed to meet the challenges in water supply. The others being linking Pilloor water pipeline network with that of Siruvani to divert Pilloor water to Siruvani-fed areas, so as to mitigate the residents’ woes.
The Corporation would take a call on releasing new water connections once the water level rose in the Siruvani Dam and it felt comfortable in managing water supply.
The earliest date when the Corporation would release water connection would be sometime after May-June 2013, after the onset on South West Monsoon.
Mr. Ponnusamy said that though it might sound alarming, the situation would not be all that bad because the Corporation had contingency measures in place. The first of them was the aforementioned linking of Pilloor pipeline with the Siruvani pipeline system.
The Corporation had proposed to establish the links at R.G. Nagar, Tatabad, Shoba Corner, Race Course, Kannappan Nagar Junction and a few other places.
The work at these places, except the last one, would be completed in a day or two.
The next would be the full commissioning of the Pilloor II drinking water supply scheme (dedicated water supply scheme).
This, Mr. Ponnusamy said, would bring in additional 30 million litres to the city, taking the total supply from the Pilloor I and II schemes to around 125 mld.
This would, to an extent, offset the loss in Siruvani supply.
He also referred to the Mayor’s suggestion to dig borewells to overcome water shortage.
The Mayor had told the Councillors at the Council meeting that if they felt that there was water shortage in their wards, or if the people demanded water, or if the borewells went dry, they could dig borewells and then take the Council’s ratification for the same.
For, the first priority is addressing people’s needs and not insisting on following procedures.
The city has over 1,800 borewells. And the total number of water connections stand at 2,51,079.
