Residents forced to store drinking water in barrels

COIMBATORE: As one walks through the streets of Cheran Nagar, Anbu Nagar or Azath Nagar in Ukkadam, it is difficult to miss the big blue barrels lined up on the roads in front of each house. These barrels are used by the residents to store drinking water. The area receives drinking water in trucks once in 30 days. Often the truck shows up once in 40 days so the residents store water in these huge barrels.It is surprising that Coimbatore corporation which instructs people not store fresh water as part of its dengue awareness has turned a blind eye to this.
The residents said that this has been the case for over two decades. "We all have pattas and we have even applied for the drinking water connection," said M Ayesha. Another resident, S Sajitha said that she has been a resident of the area for eight years. "The trucks would supply drinking water once a month and we store it in these barrels," she said. She added that she had applied for a drinking water connection as well.
"The corporation officials said that soon truck water would stop coming to our area and we had to apply for connections. It has been over three months and I have paid Rs 40,000 to the plumber. The plumber does not respond to my calls at all," she said. When the barrels become empty, they were forced to fill water from the pipelines of the neighbouring areas or buy drinking water, the residents said. Kamarnesha, 65, said during rainy season her streets are filled with knee deep water.
"Apart from water, slush gets accumulated completely blocking the area. We can neither store water nor go out of our homes. Our homes also get flooded," she said. She said the civic body should come up with a solution for their drinking water woes. "Either they should speed up connections or supply water to us once every week. This will reduce our problems. The local administration minister had made several promises before the assembly election. But none was fulfilled. He did not even come to our area after that," she added.
Councillor of ward 86 Sadik Ali said that he had requested the corporation several times to provide drinking water connections to these residents but no action was taken. "It has been over two years since I petitioned the corporation officials," he said. Corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan said that he would speed up the water connections and ensure frequent supply of water in the area.
Sunderrajan, water supply engineer, said that the corporation had delayed the supply of truck water because they wanted the residents to apply for water connections. "We have laid the water pipelines a year-and-a-half ago but the residents did not apply for connections. We will inform the plumbers to speed up the process," he said.