City residents need not worry about the water position in the Siruvani Reservoir as the Coimbatore Corporation will make efforts to tap water from below the dead storage level (DSL). Water supply mangers in the civic body said that at present the water level stood at 1.14 feet above the DSL and this water may be sufficient to meet the city’s requirements for the next three days.
Thereafter the Corporation will still be able to supply water as there exists a canal to channel water from the storage point to the water collection well.
This will help the civic body to tap 20 feet more water and this water may meet the city’s requirements till mid June.
The sources say that the Corporation and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board are closely studying the water level in the Reservoir. If need arises, the latter, as the organisation in charge of drawing water from the Reservoir and supplying it to the Corporation, will sit with its Kerala counterpart to explore the possibility of pumping the water from below the DSL to the pumping well.
Engineers in the Board say that they will explore that possibility when the need arises.
The Corporation and Board have tapped water from below DSL in 2013 when the monsoon did not arrive in time and the two were forced to dig into what was left in the Reservoir. Then there arose a controversy with Kerala trying to prevent tapping of water below the DSL.
This year the situation is turning precarious because the reservoir did not reach the full reservoir level – 49.50 feet – either during the southwest monsoon season or the northeast monsoon season.
On most occasions, the water in the Reservoir overflows during one of the monsoon seasons depending on the rainfall. On several occasions in the past, the water has surpassed the full reservoir level during both the seasons.
The sources say that with the southwest monsoon about to start anytime in the next week or so, they are confident that they can pull it off this time. Siruvani meets the drinking water needs of residents in nearly 40 of the 100 wards.
