There is good news and not-so-good news as well. First, the good news – it has started raining in Siruvani catchments and the eponymous reservoir has started receiving inflows.
Sources in the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board) and the Coimbatore Corporation say that the rainfall reading on June 9 and 10 showed that it had rained 98 mm and 27 mm respectively in the 24 hours prior to the reading.
This has pushed up water level by a few centimetres and given the much-needed comfort to the water managers in both the government agencies.
Second, the not-so-good news. The water level in the Siruvani Reservoir continues to be well below the dead storage level (DSL) – as of June 10, the water level stood at 2.62 feet below the DSL.
But the two days’ rains have helped in that it had pushed the water level by 35 cm.
The Board continues to pump water from below the DSL and of it the Corporation gets a little over 40 million litres a day (MLD).
Sources say that the civic body with the available water has been meeting the drinking water requirements of residents of 30 of the 100 wards.
It has optimised the water supply by increasing the water supply cycle – it at presents supplies water once in a week. The Coimbatore Corporation’s Pilloor water supply stands at 125 mld – the water reaches 54 wards in full. The civic body also diverts the water to nearly 10 wards to meet the shortfall in supply from Siruvani.
The Aliyar water supply stands at nine mld – well above the designed quantity of 7.6 mld, the sources add.
In Mettupalayam, the municipality decided to increase the water supply. According to Municipal Chairman D. Satheeshkumar, the Corporation had supplied water once in three days for the past months to tide over the water crisis in Summer.
Now with the increase in flow in River Bhavani, the civic body had decided to restore the alternate day water supply, he added.
