A high-level meeting convened by Water Resources Minister K. Krishnankutty on Monday to discuss the drinking water crisis in Alappuzha arising from frequent bursting of pipes supplying potable water under the Alappuzha drinking water decided to replace 1,524 metre of defective pipeline in three months.
The meeting, also attended by Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran and officials, has given consent to dig up the Ambalappuzha-Thiruvalla road to carry out the work.
Mild steel pipe
In a press statement issued after the meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, officials said that 1,084 metre of faulty pipeline in Thakazhy and another 440 metre in Kelamangalam would be replaced. “We will replace 1,000 mm high-density polyethylene pipe with long-lasting 900 mm mild steel pipe. The work will be carried out by the same contractor who laid the pipeline. The contractor will bear the cost of the mild steel pipe. Drinking water will be distributed through tankers, from borewells and reverse osmosis plants till the work is completed,” said an official.
KWA to bear cost
Officials said that the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) would bear the cost of restoring the road dug up for laying pipeline. The road work will be carried out by the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society.
The Alappuzha drinking water project was executed by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) with Central assistance under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). The project was launched in 2017. However, since its launch, pipelines under the drinking project have burst more than 40 times, including 30 major bursts at Thakazhy, in the past two-and-a-half years, disrupting the water supply and damaging the Ambalappuzha-Thiruvalla road.
Supply not restored
The latest burst, which occurred on October 30, has affected more than five lakh people. Although work to plug the leak has begun, water supply was not restored as on Monday evening. Officials said that a new crack had been found on the pipeline, close to the earlier leak at Thakazhy and they would not be restoring water supply without further assessing it. Earlier, the repair work was hampered after the Public Works Department (PWD) delayed permission to the UIDSSMT to dig up a portion of the road to fix the leak. However, after several rounds of talks between officials of the Water Resources Department and PWD, the latter accorded its sanction on Saturday evening.
