The Hindu 14.08.2009
TWAD Board water scheme should reach 100 more villages: officials
R. Arivanantham
KRISHNAGIRI: The drinking water scheme ‘Parandapalli, Kallavi and 166 villages Integrated Drinking Water Scheme’ implemented by Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) at a cost of Rs. 4.88 crore in 2007-08 should be extended to 100 more villages, say TWAD Board officials.
The project was originally conceived to provide water to Bargur SIPCOT Industrial Estate.
Later it was extended as a drinking water project as industrial activities in SIPCOT were minimal.
The government sanctioned funds for the project under the ‘Minimum need programme’.
Drinking water is drawn from three wells in South Pennar River near Pannanthur to Olaipatti and pumped to a 70,000-litre capacity sump a kilometre away from the water head with three 7.5 HP motors.
Overhead tanks
From there the water is pumped with a high-powered 60 HP motor to six overhead tanks of different sizes and a ground level water storage tank with a capacity of 2.5 lakh litres in Olaipatti village.
In total 15.6-km long water mains were laid from Pannanthur to Olaipatti village near SIPCOT.
As many as 168 villages benefited from this scheme in addition to one or two industries in SIPCOT. Eightyone villages in Uthangarai panchayat union and 87 villages in Bargur panchayat union are served by the scheme.
A TWAD official told The Hindu that borewells dug up in Uthangarai and Bargur unions did not yield desired results because of the rocky condition of those areas.
If the project was extended to another 16 km it could cater to 100 more villages up to Uthangarai town, the official said.
He said an additional investment would be needed to lay a parallel water main from Pannanthur up to Uthangarai town on the side of the existing pipelines.
At present water was being treated for ‘infiltration treatment’ and later chlorinated before pumping into the water mains.
A ‘full-scale’ water treatment plant and expansion of the project were imperative to mitigate the acute drinking water scarcity in these two unions.
Land for the treatment plant was readily available, he said.
Extension of this project to another 100 villages would help in utilising the same water supply network for the Hogenekkal drinking water project once it came into existence, the official said.
