The Hindu                           27.03.2013

Mayor inspects drinking water works

Quality check:Mayor A.Jaya checking the quality of water at the pumping station of the new drinking water augmentation scheme in Tiruchi on Tuesday.—Photo: M. Moorthy.

With trial runs on pumping water from the collector wells of the Rs.221.42-crore new drinking water augmentation scheme for the city under way currently, Mayor A.Jaya and senior Corporation officials conducted an inspection of the project works on Tuesday.

The project, financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency, seeks to step up the per capita drinking water supply to 135 litres a day and ensure equitable distribution to all parts of the city. Work on the project is being executed under eight different packages.

Accompanied by Corporation Commissioner V.P.Thandapani, city engineer S.Raja Mohamed and executive engineers R.Chandran and S.Arunachalam, Ms.Jaya visited the pumping stations of the new scheme at the Coleroon river for a spot briefing. She inspected the pumping of water from the collector wells to the common sum, the trial runs on the pumping mains, and the other common sump at Ponmalaipatti from where water would be supplied to 22 overhead tanks.

A corporation press release, issued after the inspection, said 97 per cent of the project work has been completed.

Thirty one of the 37 new overhead tanks sanctioned under the project are ready. Construction of the remaining six tanks is in the final stage.

The corporation had previously promised that the city would get water from the new scheme by the end of this month. The civic body would initially tap about 60 million litres a day (MLD) from the new scheme. The new scheme is designed to provide 93.26 MLD to the city in the ultimate stage in 2039.

Currently, the city gets about 96 MLD of water supply, a bulk of it from the Cauvery, and the additional 60 MLD is expected to tide over the short supply faced in some parts of the city.

The Hindu                        27.03.2013

The wait for Siruvani water to continue

Staff Reporter 

Those dependent on Siruvani water supply in the city will have to wait till the engineers of the Kerala Water Authority get the concurrence of their Government to accede to the request of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board to draw water below the dead storage from the Siruvani Dam.

When the TWAD Board and Coimbatore Corporation engineers raised the issue with the Kerala engineers in Palakkad on Monday, the latter reportedly said that at present they could continue drawing water till the storage reached 862.5 m (mean sea level).

The dead storage level is 863.4 m.

With the current storage level being 863.1, the TWAD Board has 1.96 feet water for supply to the Coimbatore Corporation.

The civic body on Monday received 21.50 million litres.

TWAD Board and Corporation sources said that they had asked the Kerala engineers to let them draw water till the water level in the Dam reached 858.5 m so that the residents of the 12 Siruvani-fed Wards in the Coimbatore Corporation did not suffer.

The Board’s Chief Engineer Nagarajan, Superintending Engineer Balakumar and Assistant Executive Engineer S. Sampathkumar participated in the meeting.

Difficulty

The engineers along with the Coimbatore Corporation’s Executive Engineer K. Sugumar and Assistant Executive Engineer Gnanavel explained the difficulty they faced in supplying Siruvani water.

Chief Engineers Lathika and Radhamani represented the Kerala Water Authority.

Of the 100 Wards in the Coimbatore Corporation, only 12 are completely dependent on Siruvani water.

For a few other Wards, the Corporation by linking Pilloor and Siruvani water supply network, had arranged for Pilloor waters upply.

Diversion

Efforts are on to divert Aliyar and Pilloor water to three of the 12 Siruvani-dependent Wards.

Commissioner G. Latha told reporters that work was on to provide Aliyar water to Wards 89 and 90 and Pilloor water to Ward 14.

For the remaining nine Wards, the civic body had decided to micro-manage the water supply by closing valves to pump water to tans in elevated areas and then distribute the same.

In doing so, she had asked the ward engineer concerned to coordinate with the Councillor and also valve operators.

And through the Councillor, the civic body would keep the people public informed about the water supply schedule in the nine wards – Wards 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 76, 77, 78, and 79.

As part of the efforts to ease the pressure on water supply situation,

The Corporation would also dig sink bore wells and repair motors that were not functioning.