With rain continuing in several parts of the district, water level in many of the reservoirs under the Parambikulam – Aliyar Project (PAP) has been improving, despite water release for irrigation and drinking water needs.
In the last 24 hours that ended at 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, the district recorded a total rainfall of 53.40 mm and the average rainfall stood at 4.45 mm. Rainfall in other places: Airport Peelamedu 2.40 mm, Cincona 13, Chinnakallar 12, Valparai PAP 12 and Valparai Taluk office 14 mm.
Water level in various reservoirs in ft and Full Reservoir Level in brackets: Sholayar 160.44 (160), Parambikulam 69.95 (72), Thoonakadavu – Peruvaripallam 20.31 (22), Aliyar dam 114.40 (120), Thirumurthi dam 36.21 (60) and Amaravathi dam 44.97 (90).
Siruvani and Pilloor, the major drinking water sources for Coimbatore city and a number of wayside habitations, also witnessed steady inflow into the catchments because of the continuing rain in Kerala and in parts of The Nilgiris. Despite withdrawal for drinking water needs, the storage either remains steady or witnesses a marginal increase, official sources said.
Zonal teams
The Coimbatore Corporation has formed teams in all the five zones to tackle issues related to rain. According to Corporation Commissioner G. Latha, a five-member team in each zone would attend to issues such as inundation, especially at places where the civic body had excavated earth to carry out storm water drain or underground drainage work.
The team members had also identified places prone to inundation in their zones. After rain, they would initiate steps to flush out the water and restore traffic at the earliest.
Ms. Latha said that the Corporation had also asked the workers who cleaned drains to ensure that they were not clogged.
Further, at places where the residents had covered rainwater harvesting structures, the civic body had planned to restore the same and also paint the periphery of the structures with fluorescent paints to caution the public against dumping waste on the structures.
The Corporation had also planned to prevent mosquito breeding, she said and added that the efforts taken in the recent past had borne fruits in that the number of dengue cases had come down.
Flood control rooms
In a release, the Corporation Commissioner said that to ensure instant flood mitigation, relief and rehabilitation measures, round-the-clock flood control rooms would be functioning at the Corporation Main office and five zonal offices.
The public could call the following numbers in case of inundation and flooding of roads: Corporation Main Office 0422-2302323, East Zone 0422-2572696, West Zone 0422-2551700, North ZOne 0422-2243133, South Zone 0422-2252482 and Central Zone 0422-2215618.
