The yawning gap between demand and supply of drinking water has made life difficult for people in the city and its suburban areas. As the taps run dry most of the time, about 50 per cent of the requirement of water remains unmet.
The lack of enough piped water plays spoilsport for the sprawl of the city into the suburbs. The Kerala Water Authority claims coverage of about 80 per cent of the population of the city. The major water works in the city at Aluva has a capacity of 225 million litres a day (mld) and supplies about 240 mld. However, it falls far short of the demand estimated at 410 mld in 2012-13.
The city's water supply will get augmented only when three major projects that are ongoing and in planning stages come through and also when the distribution network gets revamped.
Susan Jacob, technical director, Kerala Water Authority, told The Hindu that it is the haphazard growth of the distribution network in the city that is a problem. Equitable distribution of water remains only on paper. The water supply lines, some of which were laid in 1943, has haphazard extensions to meet the demand of people in interior areas as well.
A project of Rs. 1,000 crore is in the pipeline for revamping the distribution network, she said.
The funding is being sought either through the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) or the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
A slew of water supply augmentation projects are also around that would help provide the fillip as the supply has not kept pace with the pace of urbanisation and is most starkly visible in Thrikkakara where the demand is 31 mld and the supply is only 16 mld
The ongoing 100 mld project at Maradu that continues to face problems in getting the pipelines laid for drawing water from the Muvattupuzha river at Piravom is expected to be commissioned next year. Two more projects that would serve the city are in the planning stages — one is the JICA project that will have a treatment plant of about 190 mld in the first phase coming up at Kalamassery and the other is the GIDA (Goshree Island Development Authority)-funded project for which the treatment plant of 8.5 mld will be coming up at Mupathadam.
The JICA project would augment the city's water supply and also provide water to Mulavukkad, Cheranelloor and Eloor, where the demands are for 13 mld, 10 mld and 8 mld respectively but only have a supply of 5.5 mld, 3 mld and 2.5 mld of water respectively.
The Mupathadam plant will provide for Kadamakudy (where there is 4 mld demand and supply is less than 2 mld) and Varapuzha, where demand is 6 mld and supply is only 2.5 mld.
