In April, the residents of Jawahar Nagar had drawn the capital city’s attention to a curious fact. Water supply to numerous streets in the posh residential locality had been disrupted for months. It was ironical since the city was not threatened by water cuts this summer. In fact, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) had announced that the Peppara reservoir had adequate storage to see the city through the dry months.
The problem in Jawahar Nagar, and in other city areas as well, had more to do with old, leaky water supply pipes than with water availability. But now, a long-term solution seems to be in the pipeline.
If things pan out, the capital city will benefit from a ₹2,500 crore Asian Development Bank (ADB)-assisted project aimed at ensuring ‘continuous, pressurised water supply, 24X7.’ A part of the Smart City initiatives, the project is meant for the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation as well as the Kochi Corporation, which too faces problems in water supply.
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Approval
“The central government has in-principle given its approval. We have not yet finalised the schedule for the project. Preliminary discussions are on at the State government level,” a KWA official said.
An important aim of the project being a fool-proof water supply network, the project will see the replacement of old pipes with leak-proof ones.
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This, in turn, is expected to reduce Non Revenue Water (NRW) - water lost through leakage, water theft and misuse - and stabilise earnings through 100% billing.
The NRW volume in Thiruvananthapuram comes to around 40% to 45% at present. The target is 20%.
Leakage losses are mainly on account of old asbestos cement (AC) and galvanised iron (GI) pipes still in use. These would be replaced.
Under the ADB-assisted project, an important reform would be made. To enable better management of urban supply, the unwieldy distribution network would be pared down to manageable ‘blocks’ or District Metering Areas (DMA). Each DMA would be responsible for 3,000 to 4,000 connections, which, in a semi-isolated environment, can be monitored with greater ease.
The modernisation of the city water distribution network gains importance since the supply volumes are expected to be augmented by 2021. At present, the capital city laps up approximately 270 million litres a day (MLD). The corporation areas are fed by three water treatment plants at Aruvikkara - a 72 MLD plant, a 74 MLD plant (Japan International Cooperation Agency-assisted project) and an 86 MLD plant. Additionally, there is a 36 MLD treatment plant at Water Works, Vellayambalam.
New plant
In February, Water Resources Minister K. Krishnankutty had announced that a new 75 MLD plant would be commissioned at Aruvikkara by 2020 and an 100 MLD plant at Neyyar by March 2021.