The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : Yet another burst in water mains affects supply

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 17, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

Yet another burst in water mains affects supply

By S. Ganesan

TIRUCHI, SEPT.16 . The frequent bursts in the drinking water mains of the Golden Rock Combined Drinking Water Supply Scheme, owing to the "poor quality" of pipes, have proved a major headache for the Tiruchi Corporation.

Drinking water supply, in areas served by the scheme, was disrupted for the umpteenth time on Thursday following yet another burst in the water mains, this time near Pitchai Nagar on the Chennai by-pass road on the outskirts of the city. Not a single month passes off without a burst in the water mains of the scheme, sending the Corporation officials into a scurry to repair and replace the pipes. Very often the pipelines give away in quick succession at various points, giving a torrid time for the civic officials. The problem has turned acute over the past two years.

The scheme, executed by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, was commissioned and handed over to the Corporation 1996. The scheme caters to a large segment of the city population, covering residential colonies in Ariyamangalam, Melakalkandarkottai, Sangiliandapuram, Senthaneerpuram, Subramaniapuram, Golden Rock, Ponmalaipatti, Airport, Khajamalai, Crawford, Anbu Nagar, TVS Nagar, Mannarpuram, Kallukuzhi, Sundar Nagar, Renga Nagar and neighbouring areas.

The water mains of the scheme run for quite a long stretch alongside the Chennai by-pass road. What has irked the Corporation authorities has been the fact that the scheme, executed at a cost of several lakhs of rupees, has run into trouble within eight years against its projected life span of over a couple of decades.

Corporation sources attribute the problem to the "substandard" AC pipes used for the water mains. The stretch between Anna Statue near the Ayyalamman Padithurai on the Cauvery river (where the Collector wells are located) to Senthaneerpuram has especially proved a "weak link." The civic body has been spending anywhere between Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh to repair the mains every time a burst occurs. Besides, men and material engaged in other work have to be diverted round the clock to attend to the problem.

The collector well of the scheme too has often failed, especially during the summer, reportedly due to a technical fault in its location and installation. Though its original capacity was 20 million litres per day, very often the yield from the well dropped significantly. Pumping of water had to be totally suspended from this collector on a couple of occasions during the height of drinking water crises over the past two years. Even recently, the Corporation had to make additional investments to rectify a technical problem, which resulted in seepage of fine sand into radial arms of the collector well.

The Corporation is actively considering a proposal on replacing the pipelines, but it would have to make a huge investment on it, raising question marks over the sustainability of the scheme itself. Nevertheless, the Corporation has requested the TWAD Board to prepare a project for replacement of the water mains under the scheme and also to come up with a comprehensive proposal to overcome the problem of unequal distribution of drinking water in other parts of the city. The TWAD Board has requested the Corporation to pay a whopping Rs.14.40 lakhs towards "investigation charges" for the project.

Meanwhile, Corporation workers were working overtime to repair the burst mains at Pitchai Nagar and assured that water supply would be restored on Friday.

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