The Hindu             03.10.2013

Civic body takes up desilting work in many water bodies

Special Correspondent

The civic body here has taken up work to desilt various water bodies so that more rainwater could be stored and groundwater level increased.

Municipal Chairman M. Kathiravan told The Hindu here on Wednesday that several ‘ooranies’ (tanks) had been silted up and had become dry because of encroachment of the water bodies and the supply channels. No effort was taken all these years to desilt them, leading to substantial drop in the groundwater level.

Since the people were struggling even to get borewell water, the municipality decided to take up the desilting work under the self-sufficiency scheme —one third of the estimated cost of the work has to be borne by the municipality by way of public contribution.

Mr. Kathiravan persuaded the councillors to contribute to the work and collected Rs. 6 lakh. Doctors donated Rs. 3 lakh and educational institutions gave Rs. one lakh and the public contributed Rs. 5.81 lakh. The total collection — by way of cheques — stood at Rs.15.81 lakh. It was handed over recently to the district administration which, in turn, sanctioned Rs. 33.50 lakh for desilting Pothamarathu oorani opposite the bus stand.

Earlier, Periyakulam kanmoi work was taken up at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.75 lakh in July at Poolaoorani village. The tank is able to store water from the rain received in August.

Enthused by the success of the work, the municipality has planned to take up eight more works, including construction of retaining wall with fence along Sirukulam kanmoi from Kamaraj Road to Thiruthangal junction at a cost of Rs. 90 lakh, desilting and improvement of ooranies, supply channels and roadside channels near Sirukulam kanmoi at a cost of Rs. 49 lakh and similar work at Anna Nagar channel at a cost of Rs. 36.75 lakh.

Totally works to the tune of Rs. 2.71 crore would be taken up. It is expected that these water bodies could store water if the encroachments were removed.

The Times of India             27.09.2013

Water supply affected in Pillur II areas

COIMBATORE: Water supply in the city is expected to be affected on Friday due to a leakage in the Pillur II supply line near Veerapandi in the outskirts of the city. Coimbatore corporation officials have visited the area and the supply will be suspended for maintenance work. The corporation officials claimed that the leakage will be plugged and water will be restored by Friday evening.

According to sources, the leakage was detected in the main pipeline of the Pillur II scheme of Coimbatore municipal corporation which could have been due to excess water pressure in the supply line. According to corporation and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) board officials, water will be supplied from the Pillur I scheme as usual to the city residents on Friday. But there is expected to be a drop in the water pressure and supply duration in the wards in North and East zones primarily dependent on Pillur water as there will be no supply for 24 hours from Pillur II scheme till the repair work is completed.

As per the latest water supply readings of the corporation, the city has received 63.2 million mld from Pillur I and 28.6 mld of water from Pillur II supply scheme.