KOCHI: Kochi Corporation authorities on Tuesday had a meeting with Kerala Water Authority officials on Tuesday to address the shortage of water supply in the city. “A meeting of councillors, deputy mayor and chairpersons of standing committees of Kochi Corporation was held with officials of KWA to discuss ways to address the water scarcity in the city. We raised our apprehensions that the city is not receiving enough water supply for its day-to-day need from Aluva,” said Mayor M Anilkumar.
The corporation authorities alleged that the changes brought about in distribution have led to the situation of water not reaching the corporation’s limits, but KWA officials denied this. A couple of days back, a few councillors staged a protest at the KWA office demanding immediate steps to address the issue as several residents have been affected.
“Though they met KWA officials to find a permanent solution to the scarcity, no favourable actions were taken,” said George Nanat, one of the councillors who took part in the protest. “The scarcity of water supply in the city is a constant problem. The KWA officials had been promising to find a permanent solution for several years,” he said.
The city needs more than 500 million litres per day (MLD), while the total supply is less than 400 MLD, he added. The mayor said the next review meeting with the KWA officials will be held after 15 days to discuss the progress. “It was also decided to form a local monitoring committee in each subdivision of KWA with the respective councillors as members to address the water shortage,” said the mayor.
“Kadavanthra, Edakochi and Vaduthala face a severe shortage of potable water. The KWA officials have been asked to study the situation and propose methods to solve it in the next review meeting,” he added.