Non-delta regions of the district may be in the grip of acute drinking water crisis, but Tiruchi City appears to be in a comfortable position, at least until June.
The city requires 130 MLD water per day. And Tiruchi Corporation, which sources drinking water mainly on the riverbeds of the Cauvery and the Kollidam, has the capacity to draw it. It gets 55 MLD from the Cauvery and 75 MLD from the Kollidam.
According to sources, although the water table has gone down marginally due to failure of summer rain and extreme hot conditions, it is not at the level of causing concern to the city’s water managers.
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The civic body recorded 130 MLD from its 10 collector wells on Sunday, indicating that it is not posing much problem for drawing water from its designed capacity. It has recorded 130 to 132 MLD for the last one week.
Though the check dam across the Cauvery at Kambarasampettai is one among the reasons for keeping ground water under check, the water managers concur that the long spell of water flow in the Cauvery during the last cropping season is the main reason for the City Corporation to draw water to its maximum capacity.
The recent release of water from Mettur dam for carrying water to Veeranam tank, from where water is carried to Chennai city, has favoured Tiruchi Corporation as well.
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Since water flow was maintained for the more than 10 days in the Cauvery river, it has recharged the ground water, officials say.
“We are quite comfortable for meeting out water requirement for May. There will not be much problem in June and July too. There may be some issues in August. But it is manageable,” says a senior official of Tiruchi Corporation.
In addition to the recent wetting, Mettur dam was opened on Sunday to release 2,000 cusecs for drinking water requirements. It has to be seen whether the water will actually reach Tiruchi considering the bright chances for evaporation along the river course. However, it is said to be adding in favour of the civic body at least to an extent for ground water recharging.
But there are reports that several hand pumps have gone dry in some parts of the city. Out of 1,500 hand pumps, nearly 40% of them have become defunct due to depleting water table in southern parts of the city.
To tide over the situation, senior officials of the corporation met here on Sunday to finalise the drought mitigation management plan. A sum of ₹1.6 crore has been sanctioned for carrying out repair and rehabiltaiton of hand pumps and motors. In addition to it, it has identified five ocations in the Cauvery to drill new bore wells to augment water supply.