The rainfall in Coimbatore is less than the State's average of 925 mm. And, the available ground and surface water is not enough to meet the demand from a steadily rising population. But, there are ways to harness and conserve the available resource, says water expert R.K. Sivanappan.
If the citizens and the Coimbatore Corporation jointly take up conservation and judicious use in a holistic manner, the city should not face problems in water supply to its people, the founder-director of the Water Technology Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and former Planning Commission Member says.
As many as 11 tanks (nine of them in the city and two in the periphery) can hold substantial quantity of water. Normally, this can meet the municipal needs of Coimbatore at the rate of 100 million litres a day for 100 days.
But, to turn this water fit for municipal requirements, the following will have to be done: encroachments in the supply channels and tanks must be removed, repairs to anicuts, supply channels, tank bunds, sluices and supply weirs. A water treatment plant should also be put up at the water sources.
Huge money is spent on drawing drinking water from various sources (such as Siruvani and Pilloor dams). But, leak in supply lines and uncontrolled public taps is 35 per cent of the total supply. “This cannot be allowed to continue when water is considered liquid gold in this part of the country,” he points out.
Mr. Sivanappan also calls for doing away with the disparity in supply. Though the norms stipulate 135 litres per capita per day, the actual supply is far less in many areas. Sections that could afford more water took it while those that could not got far lesser quantity than they deserved.
The Corporation can introduce incentives for people who conserved water and disincentives for those who wasted it. Lawns, gardens and coconut trees can have recycled waste water and not drinking water.
As for agriculture, Mr. Sivanappan advocates an increase in the yield per unit area than increasing the extent of area under paddy.
Technology
There are technologies that can reduce the requirement of water by 50 per cent and increase yield to 100 per cent, he contended.
Despite the rainfall being less than the State average, the best can be made out of it through methods such as rooftop harvesting, storm water harvesting, reclamation and reuse of water, recharging of groundwater during monsoon and cloud seeding.
