The Hindu 29.04.2013
No new water connections now
Parts of city to get water supply from new scheme by month end.
The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has decided to
suspend sanction of new drinking water connections in the city
temporarily given the depleting yield from the Cauvery, the city’s main
water source.
All applications for new water
connections will be processed but the connections will be given only
after June 1. The quantum of water supplied to the city from the Cauvery
has fallen to 84 million litres a day (MLD) from the normal 96 MLD.
With
a long summer ahead, the corporation officials are pulling all stops to
ensure that the current level of water supply is maintained over the
next 45 to 60 days.
The civic body has sunk five
additional deep borewells around the Kambarasampettai Collector Well to
supplement the water supplied to the city. But with the Cauvery
remaining dry since December, the yield from most of the water schemes
has started coming down drastically.
Corporation
officials are pinning their hopes on the new Rs. 221.42-crore drinking
water augmentation scheme currently being executed in the city and hope
to supply water from it to areas facing short supply by the end of this
month. The officials had previously said that some parts of the city
would get water supply from the new scheme by the end of March. Some
parts of Woraiyur and Vayalur Road in the city are getting water from
the scheme on a trial basis.
The delay in getting the
distribution lines ready from many of the 37 overhead tanks being
constructed under the new scheme is giving some anxious moments to
elected representatives. But corporation officials are planning to pump
water to some parts of the city by linking the new pumping mains with
the existing ones. “We have already laid pumping mains for a stretch of
about 77 km and trial runs are under way, which could normally take
about three to four months. But we are planning to begin supply to 23
OHTs up to Ponmalaipatti from the new scheme by the end of this month,”
said corporation commissioner V.P. Thandapani. The new scheme has its
source at the Coleroon and already all the three collector wells are
ready. The corporation has started pumping water from the first
collector well of the scheme a couple of months ago to feed a few tanks
in Woraiyur. It would initially draw about 60 million litres a day (MLD)
from the new scheme and the additional supply is expected to tide over
the short supply in at least some of parts of the city by next month.
Meanwhile,
the civic body has appealed to the city residents to use drinking water
judiciously and warned people against sucking water from the
distribution mains by using motor pumps unauthorisedly. Water
connections to offenders would be disconnected and criminal action
initiated, Mr. Thandapani added.