Thudiyalur Cheran Nagar resident Vijayalakshmi Janardhanan, like many others in the locality, finds it tough to store water. A barrel and few pots are still insufficient, she rues. That is because the Coimbatore Corporation supplies Pilloor water only once in 15 to 20 days to Cheran Nagar and other localities that come under Ward 1.
Ward 1 is in Thudiyalur and was recently part of the Thudiyalur Town Panchayat.
She says that after the fourth day, the water quality deteriorates. “However much I boil the water, the quality suffers and reflects in the quality of food. After the 10th day, it is worse. And by the time I clean the containers, they are full of worms and sediments.”
Worst sufferers among the residents are those in rented houses and from lower economic background because they do not have sufficient containers or storage space.
Ward 1 Councillor V. Vathsala says that the once in 10 – 15 days supply is a recent development because when the localities were under the Thudiyalur Town Panchayat, the residents were able to get water once in four or five days.
In the last one year nothing much has changed. The ward has also not seen so much of a population increase that the quantity of water supplied has suddenly become insufficient. She has been raising the issue at the North Zone meetings and also at the Council.
As recently as Monday, Ms. Vathsala says that she raised the issue at the Mayor’s review meeting. The officials promised to increase supply but she is clueless.
This was only one half of the problem; the other is the poor supply of borewell water. And it appears that the supply of borewell water complements the supply of Pilloor water.
This is because, the Councillor says, the water from the four new borewells in the area is used in Ward 2. From the remaining seven borewells, there is not much supply. And in two of the open wells, the motors are dysfunctional.
Official sources attribute the deterioration in water supply to leaks in the main supply line on the Mettupalayam Road and poor distribution network. As for the latter, they say that there are no separate pipelines to supply borewell and Pilloor waters. This has forced officials to use the pipelines to supply borewell water when there is power and Pilloor water, stored in tanks, during power cuts. If the civic body were to lay new pipelines to improve the distribution system, there will be increase in supply to the area, they add.
Ms. Vathsala says that she has initiated efforts to have the motors in the open wells repaired so as to improve well water supply. And, also asked the officials to come up with a project for separate pipelines.
