The Hindu 16.04.2013
Decrease in drinking water supply from Cauvery
Residents of Namakkal Town have started experiencing drought as the frequency of drinking water supplied by Namakkal Municipality has gone up from once in two or three days to once in eight to 10 days. Unavailability of water for domestic purposes has forced people to depend on private water suppliers.
Municipal Chairman R. Karigalan told The Hindu that 10 wells of the local body that drew about 90 lakh litres of drinking water to residents of this town from the River Cauvery everyday are able to pump only 40 to 45 lakh litres of water everyday, as flow of water in the river is not more than in a small stream due to poor rainfall and less availability of water from Mettur Dam.
A few weeks ago, the municipality built a small check dam-like structure using sand for a stretch of 2 km using earthmovers to divert water flowing in the river to the place where wells that pump water to the municipality are located.
“But this was not successful as water was drawn for schemes for irrigation before it reached the wells,” he said.
Mr. Karigalan said that the municipality was now working on its latest effort to draw water from the river.
“Laying pipelines is underway from the middle of the river where water is flowing in the shallow region to pump it to the place where the wells are located.
The water will be pumped into the sand around them to filter water before it is reaches the well and is dispensed to the residents,” the Chairman added.
He also made an appeal to the State Government and the district administration to consider prioritising distribution of water from the river to meet the drinking water requirement of the people, than using it for irrigation, till the drought comes to an end.
Municipal officials said that groundwater level was poor in and around the town but efforts had been taken to identify more places where borewells could be dug to draw water. The officials also asked people to avoid wasting water and to boil water before drinking.
Project
Mr. Karigalan said that preparation of a detailed project proposal for Rs. 100 crore to draw water from the check dam at Jaderpalayam, about 40 km from Namakkal town, was in progress to work out a long term solution for the drinking water scarcity faced by the people of the town.
