To improve the water supply system across the city and ensure that all the residents get equal quantity water, the Coimbatore Corporation has commissioned a comprehensive study of all water supply schemes.
According to Corporation Commissioner G. Latha, the civic body had asked the Tamil Nadu Water Investment Corporation to study the schemes and suggest measures to make the best use of the available water supply schemes and recommend if one more scheme was required.
The Corporation at present gets water from the Siruvani, Pilloor I, Pilloor II, Bhavani and Aliyar water supply schemes. It had proposed a new water supply scheme with Pilloor as the source.
Sources in the civic body said that as the schemes were commissioned at different times and catered to various parts of the city, there was disparity in water supply due to the difference in the nature of the pipeline in the distribution network and pressure with which the water passed through.
In a few wards, the residents got water supply from more than one scheme. The quantity of water and the duration of supply varied from place to place. There was no system in place to measure the quantity of water supplied, either.
Once the study was commissioned, the Corporation would have a comprehensive view of the water supply position in the city and also know how to improve the supply.
It would look at interlinking all the schemes and where to have the interlinking.
The sources said that the study would also factor in the proposed 24x7 water supply scheme for the 60 wards in the old city area to avoid contradiction in recommendation.
This study has come at a time when the Corporation is facing a challenging situation on the Siruvani water supply front. Almost a month into the South West Monsoon period, the water level in the Siruvani Reservoir is only a little over five feet.
The rainfall in June had been rather average barring June 19, when the Dam recorded 135 mm.
The sources say that if the situation continued in the same fashion – poor rainfall in the Reservoir’s catchment – the city could be facing challenging times and that the Corporation would be forced to divert Pilloor water for Siruvani-fed areas.
In such circumstances, a comprehensive water atlas of the city with all the schemes would be of great help, they pointed out.
