First, the bad news. Water supply to the city will be disrupted till Tuesday afternoon owing to repairs on the main pipeline bringing water from the Aruvikkara plant to the city.
The pipe had developed a leak and the KWA officials have started work on plugging it. The work is expected to be over by 12 noon Tuesday, KWA Chief Engineer (distribution-south) Sreekumaran Nair said. The disruption will affect water supply to all major residential areas of the city.
The good news this drought-hit summer season is that the KWA has started pumping water from two new water supply schemes. The long-delayed Kallara-Pangode scheme, originally envisaged in 1996, will be in full swing as soon as the treatment plant at Thengumkode gets power supply. The KWA has already started pumping water from the Vamanapuram river to Thengumkode. The water supply scheme will benefit the Kallara-Pangode areas and also Vembayam, Panavur and Pullampara.
The second water supply scheme that is set to be commissioned is the three million litres a day (MLD) project for the Vizhinjam area. Here too, the KWA has started pumping in a limited manner.
The scheme is scheduled to be formally commissioned on April 25.