Water level in the Siruvani Reservoir has remained at around the 25-foot mark for quite a few days. This has worried the city’s water managers in the Coimbatore Corporation, who say if the situation continued, the city could see a very difficult summer in 2022.
As of July 21 the water level stood at 25.13 feet in the reservoir that had 49.50 feet as the full reservoir level. And, this worked out to 57% of the gross storage.
The water level had remained at the level for quite a few days. With 53 days into the South-West Monsoon season, this was worrisome because July and August were the months where Siruvani catchment received good rainfall resulting copious inflow and water crossing the full reservoir level.
Though the current water level was not a cause for immediate concern, if the situation persisted then the city could be in for trouble in summer 2022.
A full or near full reservoir by November-December would translate to water supply throughout summer, till May 30, when the South-West Monsoon usually set in, the sources said and added that if the water level did not increase, the city could start facing water shortage, particularly in Siruvani-fed wards, as early as December-January.
It was to address the issue that the Corporation had held a meeting of all its water supply engineers in the recent past, the sources said.
Meanwhile, South-West Monsoon had been playing truant in Coimbatore in July. Data from the Agro Climate Research Centre in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University showed that Coimbatore, as of a few days ago, had received only around 20 mm rainfall, which was less than one-third of the average rainfall for the month – 68.5 mm.
In June, too, the district had received less than the average rainfall.
