Coimbatore: Residents of Coimbatore are bracing for the worst water crisis in the last five years, as the city’s lifeline, the Siruvani dam, is inching closer to the dead storage level. Most parts of the city, which get drinking water only once in four days as of now, may soon have to wait for six days for the water supplies if the monsoon fails to revive, say Coimbatore corporation officials.
Already queues of colourful plastic pots are clogging the sidelanes of this textile city with a few areas getting supplies only once a week.
“We can manage for another 10 days with the present storage. By then, we hope the monsoon will revive,” said corporation commissioner Ansul Mishra,
The water level in the Siruvani dam has now precariously dipped to 23.04 million cubic feet (mcft) while its total capacity is 650 mcft.
If the water level recedes another one and a half metres, the dam will hit the dead storage. As of now, the storage stands at 865 metres (mean sea level), while the dead storage level is 863.50 metres.
Ground water table in Tamil Nadu’s second largest city and its industrial capital has hit the rock bottom due to over exploitation by farms and industrial units. Several studies have shown that ground water in the city is largely unfit for drinking. The city residents’ are mainly dependent on the Siruvani dam, which supplies, during normal monsoon, about 87 million litres daily (mld). However, in the present scenario, the supplies have come down to 40 million litres every four days from the Siruvani dam.
However, an ounce of comfort is the storage level at the city’s other water source, the Pilloor dam — 80 feet as against the full level of 100 ft. As of now, about 65 mld of water is being drawn from the Pilloor dam. However, the supplies from Pilloor cannot be further increased as the pipeline cannot carry more than the present 65 mld.
The corporation is laying an additional pipeline under the Pilloor Phase II to draw another 60 mld, but it will get completed only next year. So, the only hope now is the revival of the dormant monsoon.
DIPPING STORAGE: A view of the Siruvani dam at present
