THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Normal pumping of water from the 72 mld treatment plant of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) at Aruvikkara recommenced at 8.00 p.m. on Friday following the completion of repair work at the facility.

By about 8.30 p.m. the outlet of the reservoir at Peroorkada was opened and the distribution network of the KWA's Peroorkada zone started stabilising a couple of hours later.

The repair work at Aruvikkara involved removing the pipelines put in place along with the Venturi meter installed years ago to measure the quantity of water that is pumped daily from the treatment plant there. Although the Venturi meter stopped working many years ago, the narrow pipelines that fed water to the meter remained in place all this while.

When some weeks ago the KWA decided to convert the gravity line from the 72 mld plant to a `pumping main' line, these narrow pipelines were found to be a bottleneck. The KWA then decided to remove these lines and to allow a free flow of water in this 1,200 mm line.

Taking advantage of the hours-long shutdown of the 72 mld plant officials of the KWA also repaired a `sluice valve' located at Ambalamukku junction and also carried out maintenance activity on at least seven air valves located at different points in the distribution network of the Peroorkada zone. Executive engineer of the KWA PH division G. Sudev said here that the shutter of the sluice valve that had come loose was welded into place.

The KWA has increased the frequency of inspections of air valves in the city.

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