The Hindu 25.03.2013
Treated water, 42 years later
Water from Karichal scheme used to be just chlorinated.
Forty-two years after it was launched, the Karichal Water Supply Scheme has finally started distributing treated drinking water.
Launched in 1971 as the Poovar-Karichal Water Supply Scheme, this project of the KWA reached out to a region perennially deprived of drinking water — the State capital’s coastal belt comprising areas like Kanjiramkulam, Karumkulam, Poovar, and Puthiyathura. However, since the quality of water supplied through the scheme, which did not have a water treatment plant, did not quite meet the expected standards, criticism and complaints were frequent. The only ‘treatment’ done by KWA so far was to chlorinate the water. Now, with the addition of a water treatment plant at the Karichal pump-house, 22km from here, the KWA is trying to make a change.
