The Hindu 27.02.2010
Plan to implement two water schemes
—Photo: A. Shaikmohideen 
Need:Construction of an overhead tank going on at Tamil Nagar under ward 27 of Tirunelveli Corporation.
The Corporation's plans to execute two major drinking water schemes for wards eight, nine and ten of Thatchanallur zone and wards 19, 26 and 27 of Melapalayam zone has brought happiness among the residents of these wards as they were craving for protected drinking water for the past several decades.
When the Corporation was formed on June 1, 1994, by merging Tirunelveli, Palayamkottai and Melapalayam municipalities, Thatchanallur town panchayat, Azhaganaeri, Vellakovil, Sernthimangalam, Palayam Kottur, Karaiyiruppu, Thimmarajapuram, V.M. Chathram, Melanaththam, Karuppanthurai, Kandigaipaeri village panchayats and parts of Reddiyarpatti, Nochchikulam, Thiruppanikarisalkulam and Narasinganallur panchayats, the population was only 3,68,550, which rose to 4,11,831 in 2001.
It is expected that the population would cross five lakh in 2015 and touch six lakh by 2030, which necessitates the local body to go for integrated mega drinking water projects in near future.
According to an index prescribed by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), Ministry of Urban Development, the local bodies should supply 135 litres of drinking water to residents and hence the Tirunelveli Corporation would require 6.75 crore litres in 2015 and 8.10 crore litres in 2030.
Schemes
When the Corporation was formed in 1994, it had only Kurukkuthurai (1961) and Kondaanagaram (1983) drinking water schemes of Tirunelveli Municipality and Manappadaiveedu - old scheme (1956) and Manappadaiveedu - new scheme (1976) of Palayamkottai Municipality. The Melapalayam Municipality had only Kondaanagaram drinking water scheme (1992) and the then Thatchanallur town panchayat was getting water from Tirunelveli Municipality. Naturally, all these schemes could not meet the drinking water requirements of the newly formed corporation, which implemented Thirumalaikozhunthupuram (Rs. 6.69 crore in 2000), Thatchanallur Phase I (Rs. 1.14 crore) KTC Nagar - V.M. Chathram Drinking Water Scheme (Rs. 3.78 crore) and Thatchanallur Phase II (Rs. 5.94 crore).
However, the Corporation is getting only 3.47 crore litres a day through its nine drinking water projects against its actual requirement of 5.73 crore litres forcing the Corporation to work on two more projects - for wards eight, nine and ten (at a cost of Rs. 4.51 crore) and for wards 19, 26 and 27 (on an outlay of Rs.18.15 crore) to augment the supply.
