On January 16, P. Balashanmugasekar, president of a residents’ association representing three neighbourhoods in Velachery (namely, VGP Selva Nagar, VGP Selva Nagar Extension and Bhuvaneshwari Nagar) shared a “distress list”.
It not only delineated how deep a water-supply issue cut into this conclave, but also spelt out the timelines of the misery.
Here is Balashanmugasekar’s list of the areas that have been going without CMWSSB drinking water supply for sometime now.
“Second, Third, Fourth Main Road, VGP Selva Nagar Extension: more than a month. Third and Fourth Street, VGP Selva Nagar Extension: one to two months. Second Main Road, Bhuvaneshwari Nagar: 15 days to one month. First Street, VGP Selva Nagar: one month. Second Street, Bethel Avenue: one month. First Cross Street, VGP Selva Nagar Extension and plot no 105, 182, Fourth Main Road, VGP Selva Nagar Extension: supply not available for a long time.”
Seven days later, the distress persists. Residents of these localities are aware it is bound to persist for some more time, but want to be certain it would not go on for longer than it should. According to residents, they are given to believe the work would be completed by mid-April and they seem to be in need of reassurance that it would indeed be completed by then.
A CMWSSB official connected with the work told The Hindu Downtown that they are racing against time to complete the work by April 9, and the maximum time they might require to complete it would be April 15.
CMWSSB water supply to these areas stopped at varying points in time when a new pipeline-laying work began to meander through them. The old pipeline had to be dismantled as its fast-declining efficiency had been showing up as a low-pressure issue for a long time.
N. Chellappan, a resident of VGP Selva Nagar Extension First Main Road, underlines that low-pressure issue was long-standing, and water flow would be affected on account of it from time to time.
“The problem cut across roads in these areas. However, the cross streets would bear the brunt of it,” says Chellapan. The road he lives in has also come under the ambit of the new pipeline-laying exercise, as is evident from the cut road hastily closed with earth.
