The long-felt demand of residents in the 33 wards of Mettupalayam Municipality for supply of unpolluted water will be fulfilled through the new ₹22. 2-crore scheme for which award of tender is at a final stage, officials say.
While welcoming the initiative, representatives of public welfare associations have emphasised that revamp of the pipelines, which, according to them, were laid over two decades ago, was necessary for stepping up the frequency of water supply.
There are localities in the town such as Mahadevapuram and Mani Nagar where water is being supplied only once in three to five days. Re-laying of pipelines and construction of additional overhead tanks was necessary for increasing the frequency of water supply to at least alternate days, said M. Jaikumar, secretary, Save Bhavani Association.
The ‘Improvement to Water Supply Scheme at Mettupalayam Municipality’ for which the funds were sanctioned under newly-introduced Kalaignar Nagarpura Mempattu Thittam envisages pumping of water upstream of Bhavani at Vilamarudhur, about 7 km away from the Municipality.
The water brought through a pipeline would be treated at the existing facility, Mettupalayam Municipal Commissioner R. Amudha said, maintaining that alternate day water supply was being provided at present, and that the residents would get water from the new scheme after completion of the project over a two-year period.
Though there had been heavy spells of rain in the Northeast Monsoon season, the recharge of aquifer would only help agricultural activities. The groundwater was not fit for consumption due to contamination caused by release of effluents into water bodies by industries, Prof. Jaikumar said.
The existing pipelines laid about 23 years ago were in a damaged condition. There were instances of residents illegally drawing water with one-inch-diameter pipelines as against the norm of half-inch- diameter due to which uniformity of water supply got hampered, said former Chairman of Mettupalayam Municipality D. Satheesh Kumar who served from 2011 to 2016. Had the ₹7.5-crore water supply scheme with Japan International Cooperation Agency funding that was initiated during 2014-15 been pursued in right earnest in subsequent years, the water supply paraphernalia could have been improved significantly, he said.
