Residents of Edakkad region in Kozhikode are facing acute shortage of drinking water.
Water supply to the region located along the Connolly Canal, near Karapparamba, has been disrupted for the past two months. Around 60 households in the locality depend upon the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) pipeline for potable water.
The supply was disrupted in April-May after the pipeline burst during the cleaning of the Connolly Canal by the Irrigation Department. Since then, the people here have been fetching water from wells across the canal for their daily needs, especially cooking, while they make do with saline water for other purposes.
During the summer months, the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation used to supply drinking water here, but the supply was stopped with the onset of the monsoon as the Corporation has provision to supply water only during summer. Some well-off families here purchase drinking water in tankers at the rate of Rs.800 for 3,500 litres.
President of the Ganapathikavu Residents Association T.V. Padmanabhan said they had already petitioned MLA A. Pradeep Kumar and M.K. Raghavan, MP. Three residents’ associations in the region — Ganapathikavu, Ganga and Jwala — submitted a petition to the Chief Engineer of KWA, signed by 44 people who have been deprived of water. The KWA washed its hands of the responsibility on grounds that the Irrigation Department had not sought its permission before undertaking the cleaning of the canal, he said.
Tenders have been floated for re-laying the pipelines at a cost of Rs.7 lakh. “But now the KWA claims that it does not have the pipes for the purpose,” Mr. Padmanabhan added.
