The Hindu : Siruvani storage to last only 40 days

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Siruvani storage to last only 40 days

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, FEB. 21. The existing storage at the Siruvani reservoir would be sufficient enough for catering to the drinking water requirements of Coimbatore city and wayside habitations only for 30 to 40 days at the existing rate of withdrawal, the Collector, N. Muruganandam, said today.

Talking to reporters, he said that, as on date, the storage in the Siruvani reservoir stood at 865.5 ft as against the full storage level of 878.5 ft and water was available only for another two metres and once it depleted, the dam would hit dead storage.

Last year, water reached the dead storage level only on June 10, whereas this year, at the current rate, the storage was likely to reach this level even before March end. As on date, 33 mld (million litres a day) was being drawn from the reservoir of which the Corporation areas were getting close to 23 mld and the rest to the wayside villages and local bodies. Last year, the summer showers in March brought in 179 mm rainfall, whereas rain in February contributed close to 34 mm.

The TWAD Board authorities were pinning hopes on those stray showers for pulling on the situation without any hitch beyond March and April. If the summer showers failed to bring any respite, the only hope thereafter would be the South-West monsoon. If the reservoir hits dead storage level even before summer showers, the local bodies served by Siruvani would have to manage the situation with local water resources, for which arrangements had already been made.

The Corporation would make use of the Pilloor water supply scheme for serving those areas, which were hitherto served by the Siruvani scheme and the interlinking work had already been completed, the Collector pointed out. For the purpose of undertaking drought relief measures, the Government had already released a sum of Rs. 50 lakhs.

Of this, Rs. 35 lakhs was being spent on village panchayats where as Rs. 15 lakh was being spent on town panchayats. A sum of Rs. two crores would be spent from the local body funds and the 11th Finance Commission grants for the purpose of renovating and maintaining local water resources, he said.

The second Pilloor drinking water supply scheme, exclusively catering to the Corporation areas, was in preliminary stages and was being designed by the Corporation. In order to supplement the Pilloor supply for city areas, a generator at a cost of Rs. 25 lakhs was being installed. This would help in getting two more mld of water for the Corporation areas.

Electoral rolls

After the recent revision of electoral rolls, the electorate population in the district stood at 33,96,621, which was 72 per cent of the total district population, Mr. Muruganandam, said.

The women electorate outnumbered male voters and there were 17,03,985 female voters as against 16,92,636 male voters.

There were 2,00,273 inclusions while the deletions stood at 80,625. In total, the number of voters had gone up by 1,19,648, he added. Pointing out that the training of polling staff in using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) was going on in stages, he said that more than 3,500 EVMs would be used during the Lok Sabha poll.

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