Water supply to various parts of the city was disrupted for several hours on Sunday following the failure of an electrical system at the Kerala Water Authority pumping station at Aruvikkara.
The system that supplies power to the 72 million litres per day (mld) pumping station at Aruvikkara, collapsed on Saturday evening, apparently due to lightning. An electrical cable and CPU caught fire which stopped the pump.
However, the other two pumping stations — of 86 mld and 72 mld capacity — were unaffected, said a KWA official.
The defect was detected early on Sunday and after several hours of repair works, power supply to the pumping station was resumed around 1 p.m. Pumping was restored around 2 p.m.
Futile phone callsHowever, it will be late night or early Monday morning before full supply is restored.
Hours after pumps stopped functioning, taps in areas such as Kowdiar, Pattoor, Pettah, Chakka, Statue, Vellayambalam, and Medical College went dry putting the public to hardship. Residents made frantic calls to the KWA emergency number 2322674 but to no avail.
“We tried the number to inquire about the sudden disruption but the number did not work the whole day,” said a resident of Pettah.
Regular disruptions“Taps ran dry on Saturday evening. Supply was restored only on Sunday afternoon. A couple of houses here managed to get by because of overhead tanks. There was a similar disruption just a couple of days ago. There was a minor pipe-burst near the Pattoor Housing Board Colony late on Tuesday night. Supply was restored only on Wednesday night,” said a resident of Pattoor.
An official with KWA said several tankers were pressed into service to supply water to residents in affected areas.
