Corporation battles to tackle water woes

Saturday, 28 July 2012 09:42 administrator Accounts / Audit
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The Times of India    28.07.2012

Corporation battles to tackle water woes

MADURAI: The Madurai city corporation is hoping for monsoon to set in soon to keep away water woes, even as it gears to tackle the drinking water crisis in the wake of failure of rains.

Mayor V V Rajan Chellappa told the councillors during the council meeting on Friday that the civic body was making all preparations to ensure that the denizens of the temple city do not face any drinking water shortage arising out of monsoon failure.

"We are expecting the rains. But at the same time, we have chalked out plans to address drinking water shortage. Besides supply of water from tube wells, the corporation has planned to supply water through tankers," he said when councillors raised measures taken by the corporation to address the water shortage.

River Vaigai, the lifeline of Madurai, is almost dry with a thin stream of unpotable water. The city, prior to its expansion required 155 million litres per day. The Melakkal water pumping station along Vaigai in the city supplied 16 million litres per day (MLD), while the Kochadai pumping station supplied 21 MLD. The rest of the drinking water requirement was met with two drinking water schemes from Vaigai dam that supplied 68 MLD and 47 MLD, respectively.

However, due to the monsoon failure and the falling level in the reservoir, the yield from Melakkal pumping station dropped to a meagre 3.19 MLD and Kochadai pumping station also ended up with abysmal water yield. "The water level in Vaigai dam has come to 38.2 feet," noted councillor K Rajapandian during the council meet drawing the attention of the officials on the need for immediate measures to address the water shortage. The water level in Vaigai, is feared to drop further if rains fail to occur in the coming days.

City corporation officials say that there would not be any crisis in supplying drinking water till August in the present circumstances and hope that rains would redeem the situation after that. The first to be hit would be villages in local bodies that were annexed to the city corporation last year, where very little drinking water schemes have been implemented unlike the city.

In the past years, water from Melakkal and Kochadai pumping stations was supplied to the 72 wards of the then city corporation. However, now a portion of the water from these stations has to be diverted to the annexed areas too that have left a cut in the water supplied to the residents in the city.

Last Updated on Saturday, 28 July 2012 09:44