KODAIKANAL: Kodaikanal town has been facing acute water shortage owing to the failure of monsoon and sharp slump in storage in new and old dams – the prime drinking water sources for the town – and the inordinate delay in implementing Lower Gundar project.
The present storage in these dams will be sufficient for drinking water supply only for the next 10 days. Many streams on upper and lower Kodaikanal hills are dry.
Now, residents in several wards get water once in eight to 10 days, and in other wards once in 12 days. Kodaikanal Municipality has been struggling to maintain water supply to residential areas for the past 15 days. Now, it has been depending on bore wells sunk near the lake.
The new and old dams have covered only 50 per cent of the town as far as water supply is concerned, and the remaining requirement is managed by bore wells. Water pumped from bore wells is being collected in a well near the lake to maintain supply to other wards, including Moonjikkal and Anandagiri.
With no sign of rain, municipal officials expressed grave concerns over maintaining drinking water supply to all the wards. “Depletion of water table near bore wells will certainly worsen the situation. With a blanket ban on sinking bore wells in force, we solely depend on the water supplied by the municipality for all purposes,” say local people.
To augment drinking water supply, the State Government had sanctioned Rs. 42 crore for implementation of lower Gundar project long back. But the work was going on at a snail’s pace. At present, pipe laying work within the town limit was on. A road connecting the head works and the main road was necessary to start the work and transport men and materials to the work spot. Delay in such a major work would certainly delay the project, said sources.
Meanwhile, Kodaikanal Municipality commenced desilting work in old dam, built by the British, on Thursday. It would improve the situation to a certain extent. But haphazard desilting would lead to landslips and breach in bunds, said environmentalists.
Already, large-scale destruction of marshy grasslands in catchment areas of the supply dam in the name of development, encroachment and proliferation of mono crops had damaged the ecosystem severely, they deplored.
