Storage in the Siruvani reservoir, source for drinking water needs of Coimbatore City and a number of wayside habitations reached the brim and started overflowing in the small hours of Thursday bringing in the much awaited relief for the people as well as the city’s drinking water supply managers.
Storage in Siruvani reservoir stood at 49.54 ft on Thursday, which is the Full Reservoir level. In the last 24-hours that ended at 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, the Siruvani catchments witnessed a rainfall of 40 mm and foot hills recorded 20 mm. The last overflow in Siruvani was on September 1, 2011 and in the past the overflow was reported 2007, 2008 and 2009.
The other major drinking water source Pilloor which caters to the drinking water needs of Coimbatore city besides a number of wayside habitations was already overflowing.
Overflow in Siruvani comes that too on August 1 (within two months of South West monsoon) as a major relief for the people as well as the drinking water supply managers of the Coimbatore Corporation, as they had been waiting with their fingers crossed and bated breath ever since the summer season began this year. During the peak summer season, when the storage hit the dead storage level, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board took permission from Kerala for pumping water to the intake well and supply to the city came down to the lowest ever of 27 mld.
The present storage in Siruvani is adequate to take care of the drinking water needs of Coimbatore City and wayside habitations for more than 280 days, sources said. However, there is another 30-days to go for the withdrawal of the South West monsoon (July to September) and North East monsoon (October to December) is expected to resume in another 40-days.
The remaining days of the South West monsoon and the North East monsoon is expected to keep supplementing the storage compensating for the withdrawal of close to 98 mld every day. Siruvani overflowing on August 1 and more rain expected is a major reassurance that the city would be able to comfortably sail through the next summer season.
TWAD Board Executive Engineers V.T. Nagarajan (Siruvani), S. Sampath Kumar (Projects) along with Assistant Executive Engineer N.Subramanian, Assistant Engineers K.Pattan, R. Venkatachalam, work Inspector A. Iruthaya Devanatahan and Corporation team including Assistant Engineer K. Karuppasamy visited the dam to take stock of the arrangements for ensuring fullest quantity of supply to the city. The team had a tough time in reaching the reservoir and in returning because of the obstructions caused by wild elephant herd and trees uprooted by rain and wind.
Frequency in Supply:
On Thursday, after the overflow the supply to city is maintained at about 100 mld. Corporation Commissioner G. Latha said that till date, the civic body was providing alternate day supply in some areas and once in three days supply in other areas. With the Siruvani storage reaching the FRL, Siruvani areas would get water supply on alternate days. Corporation was taking steps to overcome the constraints in distribution and supply system so that all areas would get uniform water supply.
New Connections:
With the storage reaching the comfortable full storage level in both reservoirs, Corporation is preparing to release the freeze on new water connections. Applications received for new water connections will be processed and once the corporation plumbers get their licenses renewed, release of new connections are likely to begin from August second week, officials said.
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