Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Fourth pump to be operated at Aruvikkara

Staff Reporter

Parking facilities for tankers to be improved

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crisis Management Group (CMG) of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) that met here on Thursday decided to press into service a fourth pump at the 72 mld treatment plant at Aruvikkara to reach more water to the city's distribution network.

The pump will be switched on, on Saturday morning. Managing Director of the KWA T.P. Mohanlal said here on Thursday that there has been an improvement in the quantity of water reaching the city's storage reservoirs ever since the third pump at the 72 mld treatment plant was switched on last month.

The CMG meeting decided to remove the Venturi meter installed near the Elevated Service Reservoir (ESR) near the 72 mld plant. The meter was installed decades ago to measure the quantity of water being supplied to the city from Aruvikkara. The meter stopped working many years ago. The quantity of water now supplied from Aruvikkara is beyond the measuring capacity of the meter, KWA engineers at Aruvikkara said.

Revenue

Mr. Mohanlal said part of the daily revenue generated from the sale of water to private water tankers at Aruvikkara would be used to enhance the vending facilities. "We are now getting upwards of Rs.50,000 a day from the sale of water at Aruvikkara. This is pure profit for the KWA. For installing proper vending facilities, including proper parking and approach facilities for the tankers, and for installing a dozen vending points at Aruvikkara, we will only need the income of three or four days. We will put all this in place very soon," he told The Hindu here.

The daily income from Aruvikkara has exceeded all expectations and would go up in the coming days, he added.

Water supply disrupted

The pumping of water from the 86 mld treatment plant at Chithirakkunnu, Aruvikkara, was disrupted for close to three hours on Thursday due to an electrical malfunction at the plant. According to the KWA engineers, the insulator of the 11 kV Vacuum Circuit Breaker at the treatment burnt out at 6.45 a.m. cutting off power supply to the pumps. This incident also caused the power supply to the 72 mld treatment plant across the river to trip. While pumping at the 72 mld plant was restored 10 minutes later, the supply of water from the 86 mld plant was restored only by about 9.40 a.m.

A short while after the disruption in pumping from both the treatment plants at Aruvikkara, the water levels in the city's storage reservoirs recorded a sharp fall.

The worst affected was the reservoir at the Observatory Hill that services the elevated areas in the city, including Thycaud, Vahzuthacaud, Sasthamangalam, Vellayambalam, Palayam, Statue, Pulimoodu and Ayurveda College.

The outflow of water from the KWA's reservoir at Peroorkada was also affected.

This zone was just stabilising from the disruption in water supply on Wednesday night due to leak rectification in a 400 mm line at the Vayalikkara road. Water supply in these lines had commenced at 4 a.m. on Thursday.

The supply of water to the low-lying areas in the city, from the tanks at water works compound, was not affected on Thursday.

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