A cable fault at a high tension line of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) at the Kerala Water Authority’s (KWA) water treatment plant at Aluva rendered dry water pipelines in the city for close to ten hours on Thursday.
Of the three major supply lines from the treatment plant, two of them, one to the Thammanam pump house and the other going into the city’s distribution network, were without water till the fault was restored in the afternoon. The power breach at about 5.30 a.m. was detected by about 5.45 a.m., said a senior official at the Aluva plant. Though the official said the restoration work was completed by 12 noon and the pumping began by 1 p.m., it is learnt that the pumping was fully restored by around 3 p.m.
Out of the 200 million litres a day supplied through two pipelines, about 60-65 mld could be affected. Supply to West Kochi area was not affected as the 55 million litres pumped from a third major supply line to Perumanoor pump house remained undisturbed. The supply to this line comes through a separate low tension cable.
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It would take time for water supply to reach far-end consumers in the distribution network owing to the disruption on Thursday.
The official at the treatment plant said the cable fault could be restored quickly because it was easily located. The fault lay just where the KSEB line entered the KWA’s sub-station.