THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has decided to strengthen its ‘Blue Brigade’ and special squad team to tackle the pipe maintenance work in a time bound manner in the city. In view of the acute shortage of potable water, Mayor V K Prasanth has directed the KWA officers to take urgent measures to resolve the issues. Many parts of the city like Sasthamangalam, Kowdiar, Vazhuthacaud, Thycaud, Nanthencode and Palayam have been facing water shortage for the past few months.
The Blue Brigade is a team of KWA officers who are designed to swing into operation as and when the ‘running contractors’ of the KWA failed to set right a leaking pipeline within a specified time frame. The KWA currently has three sets of Blue Brigade teams.The team will be active during the night hours in the city. Equipment like radar and leak detection system will be used to identify the leakages in the pipes.
“The radar system is more effective during the night hours as signals can be detected only when there is less traffic. After identifying the leaks the maintenance wing will be responsible to rectify the damage within a specified time. The rectification process may take some time as about 40 years old pipe line connection has to be replaced,” said G Sreekumar, Water Authority chief engineer.
The officer claim the major issue is in identifying the leakages in the pipes.
Currently, the city receives around 300mld water from Aruvikara plant of which 30 to 40 percent is in loss due to the leakage in the pipes. Under the AMRUT project, a 75 MLD plant is being established at Aruvikara. With the completion of the project more than half of the water shortage issues will be resolved, the Mayor said.
The Blue Brigade team in Thiruvananthapuram has already started showing positive results. On Friday the team identified a hidden leak and resolved the issue within 12 hours at Nandavanam. Due to which the KWA was able to increase the water level of the observatory tanks and the crisis of some areas including Secretariat, Pulimoodu and Vellayambalam has been solved to some extent. The service line connection to various houses in the city are very old. The maintenance time may vary according to the diameter of the pipes, said Sreekumar.