The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Dry spell dashes hopes of increase in water supply

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Dry spell dashes hopes of increase in water supply

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, DEC. 7. Hopes of increase in the quantum of drinking water to various local bodies under the Siruvani scheme seem to have been belied owing to the current dry spell.

The surplussing of the Siruvani Dam twice this year, after a gap of five years, gave rise to the hopes, especially among the panchayats.

Poor North-East Monsoon

However, the North-East Monsoon has not brought as much dividends as the South-West Monsoon did between June and September this year.

According to water managers in the city and suburbs, there should have been some appreciable amount of rain now, as the North-East Monsoon is normally active till the second week of December.

But, the dry spell since early November has only struck a note of caution that what the South-West Monsoon had provided cannot be wasted.

After the measly 1 mm rain on November 16, there has been no rain so far either at the dam or the Siruvani foothills.

The last heavy rain was in the first week of November.

The situation has been the same elsewhere in the district. And, that is said to have eliminated whatever chances there may have been for changes to the supply quantum and schedule.

Even as the Siruvani Dam overflowed in August, the Coimbatore Corporation refused to go overboard by rescheduling water supply schedules immediately.

During crisis, its quota from the dam was drastically curtailed to around 35 million litres a day (mld). This was a far cry from the 87 mld envisaged for the city under the scheme.

After the dam surplussed, the supply quantum was not increased drastically. In phases, it rose to 70 mld for the city. Yet, the suburbs did not get even a drop of increase.

This led to some of the local bodies in the periphery requesting the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board to increase the quantum.

Supply inadequate

The local bodies in the suburbs that are served by the Siruvani scheme say that the existing quantum of 10-13 mld is inadequate to meet the sharp rise in demand for drinking water, what with hectic housing activity in these areas.

Official sources in the Vadavalli Special Panchayat say there is no response to their request so far.

And, the general feeling in the local bodies is that there may not be any major change till the next monsoon.

Corporation cautious

When the Corporation restrained itself from plunging headlong into drastic changes in supply in spite of heavy rain and the overflow in the dam, the reason cited was that one good monsoon was not encouragement enough to restore daily supply.

Reverting immediately to daily supply would amount to courting crisis again. But, the Corporation did restore alternate day supply without making any official announcement. It had rescheduled supply to once in four days in 2003 when the crisis deepened.

The only cause for cheer among residents is that water connections are being released. In some of the local bodies in the suburbs, two-year-long waiting lists are being cleared. But, the limited quantum of supply remains a cause for concern.

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