The combined drinking water supply scheme for Kavundampalayam Municipality and Vadavalli Town Panchayat may be commissioned in December this year, according to the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board.
Called the Bhavani Scheme, as water will be drawn from River Bhavani, it will augment supply in the growing suburbs of Vadavalli and Kavundampalayam. The Board is confident of completing all the works by December. It says the works to lay pipes and construct tanks are in full swing, with most of these in final stages.
According to Superintending Engineer, Coimbatore and The Nilgiris, P. Velusamy, most of the works were close to completion and there are plans to carry out a test supply of raw water next month.
Announced in 1999 along with the Aliyar Scheme for Kurichi and Kuniamuthur and the Pilloor Phase II scheme for the Coimbatore Corporation areas, the Bhavani Scheme has been designed to provide 2.86 million litres of water a day (mld) to Vadavalli in 2011 and 5.74 mld to Kavundampalayam. In 2036, the supply will be 5.32 mld and 12.6 mld respectively, says Executive Engineer of TWAD Board, Urban Division- Coimbatore, M.S. Manoharan.
“Almost 95 per cent of the head works such as intake well and 98 per cent of the works for laying the raw water pumping mains have been completed,” he says.
“Besides, 80 per cent of the work on establishing a water treatment plant at Chellappanur is also over.”
The establishing of booster pumping stations at Veerapandipirivu and Kavundampalayam is nearly over.
Out of the 15 overhead tanks at Kavundampalayam and Vadavalli, seven are for the municipality and eight for the town panchayat. Five tanks in Kavundampalayam and four in Vadavalli have been completed and the work on the others is at an advanced stage.
Appreciating the Board’s intention to commission the scheme in December, Coimbatore Consumer Cause secretary K. Kathirmathiyon says at least this time the deadline should be met.
“Twice earlier, expectations of the scheme being completed quickly had been belied. There is need for more water, as the supply frequency has worsened from alternate days to once in 10 days,” he points out.
Sources in the Kavundampalayam Municipality and Vadavalli Town Panchayat say the new scheme will provide immense relief to the resource-starved local bodies. At present, the quantity of Siruvani water provided to them is inadequate compared to the rising population.
Vadavalli itself is seeing an addition of 200 to 300 houses every year and there are already 6,000 to 6,500 water connections.
The situation is tighter for Kavundampalayam, which is a much bigger local body. If not daily supply, the local bodies hope to at least provide alternate day supply with increased duration when the new scheme is commissioned.
