With the Coimbatore Corporation completing 90 per cent of the work to link the Pilloor water supply network with the Siruvani water supply system, the water will start flowing within a week. Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy said that the civic body will start supplying Pilloor water to Siruvani areas in a few days.
The Coimbatore Corporation had earlier proposed linking the two water supply networks at R.G. Nagar, Tatabad, Shoba Corner, Race Course and a couple of other places to divert the Pilloor water to Siruvani-fed areas to mitigate the impact of the fall in water level in the Siruvani Dam.
The move would benefit residents of 25 wards, and leave residents of half-a-dozen wards at the mercy of Siruvani supply as no link could be established. As of last week, the Corporation received around 35 million litres a day of Siruvani water, which was less than half the designed quantity of 85 mld.
The Corporation, according to sources, was able to initiate such measures because of the 30 mld it was getting from the Pilloor Dedicated Drinking Water Supply Scheme, or Pilloor II scheme. It would soon get an additional 30 or 35 mld from the very scheme once the work at the collection well was complete. This was likely to take another 15 days or so.
But then, if the Corporation commissions the Pilloor Dedicated Drinking Water Supply Scheme, it should forego the water from the Pilloor I scheme, managed by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board. If that were to happen, the civic body would fall short of 65 mld as the Board would use the same to increase its supply to a number wayside habitations and deliver the water to more habitations.
It was unlikely, though, the sources said and pointed out that the Board’s deadline for completing the works to divert the water was January 2014. It was this extended deadline that had given Corporation a cushion of 30 – 40 mld.
Had the Board completed the work by now, the sources said that the Corporation would be left high and dry. And it may not have the cushion next summer.
