KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation Council has decided to seek the State Government's permission to set up its own water supply system.

In a special council meeting on Friday chaired by Mayor Mercy Williams, the council decided to set up a committee to study the viability of the project.

Proposing such a scheme, C.K. Manisankar, Deputy Mayor, said that it would be an exclusive and major project for the city. The need for such a project came in the backdrop of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) not making any effort to address the water scarcity in the city.

In fact, the council had discussed this problem time and again and had requested many times to the KWA to change the pipelines and taps.

But, all efforts by the council turned futile.

Mr. Manisankar said that if no step were taken to solve the city's water crisis, the council would go on a strike.

A proper water supply system should also be the major project to be included in the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, which provided support for smaller cities to take up major infrastructure projects.

Mr. Manisankar said that an agency should be appointed to make a project report for setting up the system. The scheme should involve bringing water from the Edamalayar and the Chalakudy river. He proposed that a route map of the distribution line be prepared, as the KWA has no idea of how the city has been connected with water pipelines.

The HUDCO project was supposed to be completed by December 2002 while the DFID project was to be completed by March 2003.

The KWA's Chowra and Chundi schemes, when implemented, would solve the water problem faced by Thripunithura and neighbouring areas. The scheme that the corporation proposed would cater only to the needs of the city, he said.

Earlier, water scarcity was the hallmark of West Kochi alone, but now the entire city was reeling under the problem, Mr. Manisankar said.

Councillor T.J. Vinod said that the city needed 405 million litres of water a day and the need would go up to 445 mld by 2026. Water should be made available on a war footing, he said. After a major water distribution system in 1965, it took more than 30 years to invent another water supply scheme for the city.

A.K. Sabu said that the water supply scheme for the city was an ambitious project and that corporates and the Cochin Port Trust should also be made part of it.

He said that the system should be developed on the lines of the Cochin International Airport, which is a private-public joint venture. The council should take a legal opinion on forming a company if necessary, he said.

Councillors N. Venugopal, Hamsa Kunju, K.J. Antony, Johnson Master, Prem Kumar, Lailamma George and Shyamala Prabhu also spoke.

New office building

The council approved the tender called for constructing a new office building at a cost of Rs.12.70 crores, for which the Government had sanction only 5 per cent of the funds.

Since the contractor had indicated that 8.2 per cent of the quoted price should be made available at the start of the work, the council approved the demand on the Government's oral consent.

The rest of the 3.2 per cent funds will be made available only after the elections.

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