Pipeline burst adds to water woes in Kochi, tanker services to be ramped up
KOCHI: Several parts of Kochi were hit by water shortage on Tuesday following a pipeline burst in Kaloor the previous night.
Local residents had staged a protest at the site after piling for a pillar of the Kochi Metro’s phase 2 project near JLN Stadium station led to the pipe burst.
According to the protesters, repeated pipe bursts and water supply disruptions have been affecting areas like Kaloor, Edappally, Ponekkara, Cheranalloor, Palarivattom, Thammanam, and nearby regions, with water scarcity turning acute over the past few days.
“We have been struggling with water shortage for four days. Despite several complaints, no action had been taken by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to ensure drinking water to this region,” said Balamukundan, a 75-year-old living near North Janatha Road.
“Currently, the residents’ associations are privately arranging tanker lorries for water supply, which many cannot afford either. Only people who have wells in their compounds have sufficient water right now,” he added.
While the first leak near the St Martin Church was rectified by Monday evening, charging pressure led to another major leak in the 50-year old 300mm pipeline, causing waterlogging in the North Janatha Road region and disrupting traffic. That added to the woes of local residents.
In a meeting attended by people’s representatives and Kochi Metro and KWA officials, District Collector G Priyanka said that water supply will be restored at the earliest.
“Arrangements will be made to supply drinking water through tankers from Tuesday night. The repair will take some more time,” she said.
At the same time, KWA blamed the Kochi Metro authorities’ carelessness.
“KMRL had continued with the piling work without informing us. The alignment of the entire region had been submitted to the metro authorities and the project was designed accordingly. But we have noticed major design failures, which will be modified further,” a KWA official said.
The rectification work will take time as parts of the pipeline are now inside metro pillars.
Replacement and leak repair will happen only after cutting concrete in certain places, where the soil too remains loose due to waterlogging, KWA stated.
The collector has directed that KMRL continue with the work only after proper inspection of the pipelines.