Condemning the Coimbatore Corporation’s poor drinking and non-potable water supply management, members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam staged a protest here on Monday.
Singanallur MLA and party’s Coimbatore Urban South District Secretary N. Karthik, who led the protests, said while poor storage position in Siruvani as a result of the failure of South West Monsoon had hit hard the city’s water supply, the Coimbatore Corporation’s inefficient handling of the crisis had accentuated the people’s suffering.
He had suggested the Corporation to take up with the State Government the move to build additional overhead tanks to store Pilloor water and distribute the same to the people. The proposal was to build 48 tanks at ₹30 lakh but the civic body had done nothing about it.
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Likewise, it had also not taken steps to lay new pipelines to improve non-potable water, as the pipelines in use were laid more than two decades ago. The Corporation could have at least appointed more assistant/junior engineers to monitor water supply. At present, an engineer was taking care of more than five wards. But the civic body chose not to look into any of these and the impact was that people across the city were suffering with once in 10 days to once in 20 days supply. The worst affected were those in Singanallur, Peelamedu, SIHS Colony, Kavundampalayam and a few other pockets.
The Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani, who was from the district, should have paid attention to the issues, released funds to help the Corporation take up remedial action but he had failed to lead from the front, Mr. Karthik charged.