With continued monsoon failure and drastic drop in groundwater level, residents in parts of Manapparai town, who do not benefit under the Cauvery drinking water supply scheme, are complaining of hardship.
For a large part of the municipality, local sources like borewells, which used to be the last resort, have failed.
“We have to line up in front of the public borewell at least five km away, but it runs dry frequently. We request neighbours for water but they turn us away. We are daily-wage labourers. Do we go to work or do we queue up near the borewell all day?” asked S. Parvathiammal, who lives in Vidathalampatti.
Although groundwater used to be available at 150 feet in the town, borewells dug as deep as 1,000 feet do not fetch water now.
On Thursday, a group of residents from Vidathalampatti held a demonstration outside the municipality office, demanding borewell in their village.
“The civic body pays no heed to whether we get drinking water or not. Parts of our ward are fitted with Cauvery scheme pipes but those close to the hills, like ours, are not,” said M. Subramanian, another resident.
On paper, all 27 wards in Manapparai Municipality are covered under Combined Water Supply Schemes (CWSS). But no ward is covered entirely.
“A ward will have anywhere between 20 to 70 per cent coverage. No ward is covered fully. In areas which are rocky, it is difficult to lay water pipelines,” said a source in the municipality.
The Combined Water Supply Scheme, with headworks at Kulithalai in Karur district 40 km away, provides regular water to Manapparai and a plan for 2.8 million litres day (MLD) was drawn up. At present only close to 2 lakh litres is being supplied on alternate days.
Denying any inequity in drinking water supply, N. Sridevi, Commissioner, Manapparai Municipality, said: "We have promised to dig three borewells near Vidathalampatti and many others will be dug to solve their water needs. Borewells dug earlier caused air blocks and water blockage.”
Motors used for illegal pumping of water are being seized. With the fall in water table, residents are depending heavily on municipal supply. Hence, the demand for more water, the Commissioner added.
