Kerala - Others   

Poor maintenance may hit water supply

By G. Mahadevan

THIRUVANATHAPURAM, FEB. 15. The city's water supply system is in a mess owing to the malfunctioning of equipment at the Kerala Water Authority's (KWA) drinking water pumping station in Aruvikkara.

Sources in the KWA told The Hindu that of the two transformers at the electrical sub-station in Aruvikkara that supply power to the pumping stations, one was yet to be made operational. The one that is operational now is not working properly and does not deliver the voltage required by the pumps. There have also been frequent and unexplained power outages at the sub-station.

As a result, the pumping of drinking water from Aruvikkara has been disrupted several times. But, this has not been recorded in the logbook maintained at the pumping station.

Apart from the two pumps that were burnt out, there are other pumps at Aruvikkara that require urgent maintenance. "However, nothing has been done by way of preventive maintenance till date. If a pump fails, there is some sort of backup now. If the electrical sub-station fails, the city's piped water supply will stop," a KWA source said here today.

KWA inquiry

These discrepancies reportedly came to light during a recent internal inquiry conducted by top KWA officials into the breakdown of two pumps at Aruvikkara on January 25 and 29. Large parts of the city went without water for more than 24 hours owing to it. KWA officials reportedly found that the breakdown had been owing to shoddy maintenance and that frequent power failures at the electrical sub-station was playing havoc with the pumping of drinking water.

Scarcity

The continuing scarcity of water in places such as Pattom, Sreekaryam, Kulathur, and Manvila was owing to the haphazard management of the 72 mld pumping station at Aruvikkara, it has been learnt. According to sources, this plant is being repeatedly shut down to facilitate inter-connection of the existing pipeline network and that being laid as part of the `theerapadhom' project. Top officials did not comment on these issues.

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