COIMBATORE: This is the first time in
Coimbatore's history that
Siruvani water supply has been stopped. It's over a week since a single drop of Siruvani water reached the city.
Senior corporation officials confirmed that Siruvani water supply had been stopped.
The scheme, that was visualized in 1889 and implemented in 1929, has always been the lifeline of the city. But this is the first time in nine decades that Siruvani water supply has been completely stopped.
“Usually , the dam goes dry in April or May. But even then, the supply has never been stopped. Water was pumped from below the dead storage until the city received rainfall. This is the first time that we are facing such an acute water crisis and that too in January ,“ said a water supply engineer of Coimbatore corporation.
On April 29, 1929, 110 drinking water pipes were set up and six water connections were given in Race Course area. That was the first time that the city received the sweet Siruvani water. The project was conceived by
S P Narsimhalu Naidu, a Congress member who visited the
Siruvani Hills and Muthikulam falls in 1889. He submitted a proposal for this scheme to bring the water downwards using gravity. But the project saw daylight only after 40 years when C S Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar became the chairman of the Coimbatore municipality. In 1925, the cost of the project was `41 lakh and it escalated by a few lakhs in 1929.