The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Water supply restored

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Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Water supply restored

Staff Reporter

Leak in 400-mm pipeline near Ambalamukku repaired

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Supply of drinking water to areas serviced by the Kerala Water Authority's (KWA) reservoir at Peroorkada, which was disrupted on Tuesday night following a leak in a 400-mm line near Ambalamukku, was restored shortly after 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

The affected areas included Ambalamukku, Kowdiar, parts of Sasthamangalam, Kuravankonam, Marappalam, parts of Pattom, Goureesapattom, Pazhaya road and Kumarapuram. Although the KWA engineers initially attempted to repair the leaking line by closing a valve at Ambalamukku, the faulty valve was unable to completely stop the flow of water in the leaking line. By 2 a.m. on Wednesday, KWA engineers had to close the outlet of the reservoir at Peroorkada. This, in turn, cut off water supply to all areas coming under the Peroorkada zone.

Moreover, when the reservoir began to overflow, the KWA had to stop pumping from the 72-mld treatment plant at Aruvikkara for close to three hours. Therefore, even after the leak was rectified on Wednesday morning and after the reservoir at Peroorkada was opened, it took many more hours to stabilise the water supply to the affected areas. The restoration of the supply to parts of Pattom was particularly delayed.

According to KWA engineers, most of the valves in the city's distribution network are faulty. Superintending engineer of the PH division, Thiruvananthapuram, K. Mohan said the repair of these valves was not viable as most of the existing pipelines were scheduled to be bypassed once new lines were laid under the JBIC and JNNURM programmes. "We will use only about 500 km of the existing lines. The rest will be discarded. Under the JBIC scheme, there will be new, upgrade valves for almost all pipelines, including the 100 mm lines going into a by-lane in the city," he said.

The anti-water theft squads of the KWA serviced notices to an apartment complex and a shopping complex in the Vellayambalam area where water connections in the domestic category were being used for non-domestic purposes. The squads inspected six apartment complexes and shopping complexes on Wednesday. The raids will continue, KWA officials said.

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