THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : With mercury levels soaring, the city dwellers living in elevated areas are at the receiving end. While the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials claim there is adequate drinking water at Aruvikkara, there is no dearth of tanker lorries crisscrossing the city carrying water.
Those requiring services of these tankers are dependent on the ‘Smart Trivandrum’ mobile application of the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, through which anyone can book water.
Over the last few weeks, several areas in the city saw pipe bursts, resulting in a drinking water shortage. However, the most affected are people living in elevated residential areas of Jawahar Nagar, Medical College and Sreekariyam. Most of the customers are forced to book drinking water through the ‘Smart Trivandrum’ app.
M Shafi, a tanker lorry driver at Nedumangad, revealed that most of his colleagues have been busy supplying drinking water at various elevated areas in the city and suburbs. “I have been under the weather since the last few days. Hence, I had asked my colleagues to cover for me. I was told that due to pipe bursts, several areas have been affected since the last few weeks,” Shaji said.
Consumers can book 2,500 litres (under Rs 1,800), 5,000 litres (under Rs 2,400), 11,000 litres (under Rs 3,800) and 20,000 litres (under Rs 4,800) of water depending on their needs under the tanker service. “There has been an ardent demand for drinking water due to shortage in many areas,” a help desk staffer at the corporation said.
The water sources for the service come from the KWA storage tanks at the Kerala Works campus at Vellayambalam and treatment plants at Aruvikkara, Choozhampala near Pappanamcode, PTP Nagar and Attingal. However, of late, residents have been objecting tanker drivers from fetching water from Choozhampala citing scarcity in the area.
City dwellers in Thiruvananthapuram require 320 million litres a day (MLD). The water level at Peppara dam on Tuesday stood at 102.3m, where the optimum level is 107.5m. This time last year, the water level at the dam was 102.25m. KWA-owned Peppara dam distributes water to the city via the Aruvikkara dam, which supplies 320 MLD through PTP Nagar, Observatory, Peroorkada and Manvila zones to their consumers.
A senior KWA official said that as of Tuesday, the Peppara dam has sufficient water to last until the first week of June.