MADURAI: With the summer season approaching, one can find common scenes almost in every part of the city: pots lined before up before the corporation's drinking water pipelines. Yes, the drinking water woes are becoming a major concern for the city residents this season.
In certain parts of the city, locals are left to wait for more than five to ten days to fetch a few pots of water. The shortage of water arrival from water sources has been cited as the major reason for the situation by the city Corporation officials.
In order to provide a solution to the crisis of the prevailing water distribution issues, the city corporation has started upgrading the existing pipelines at the cost of `310 crore.
A resident of Avaniyapuram Vanitha said, "Owing to Salinisation issues, locals have to rely on the corporation water pipelines to satisfy the drinking water needs. In our area, water is distributed once every five days and that too only for an hour or two. We have to fetch a minimum of five to eight pots of water to use till the next water distribution day. We do not know how things are going to worsen during the upcoming summer season when water scarcity issues will worsen.”
Social Activist S S A Basha said, "About 40,000 families are residing in ward 37 and on an average, the area requires nearly 4 lakh litres per day to cater to the drinking water needs. However, the corporation only provides water once in 10 days for a maximum of one and half hours. Within such a short duration, residents could get a minimum of 10 - 20 pots. Despite paying a water tax of `900 once every six months, the pipelines in the area are failing to cater to our needs."
He demanded the corporation to take action to provide water once in two to three days for a minimum of two hours. Also, all the pipelines have to be upgraded for handling current and future needs, he added.
When contacted, the City Corporation Commissioner Dr TK Karthikeyan, said, "The borewell situated in Melakaal area has completely dried out, which has created a 15 MLD (Millions of liters per day) shortage on a daily basis. At present, we are distributing water from the Vaigai sources only. In order to solve the problem, we have requested the PWD department to release water two days earlier than the proposed release for the upcoming Chithirai car festival. When the water is released into Vaigai River, we could get a minimum of 16 MLD water which could solve the prevailing water shortage."
He added that the city corporation has floated a tender for construction of the water distribution lines and house connections from Mullaiperiyar lower camp at the cost of `310 crore.
“Following the completion of the tender process by the middle of April, the works for construction of pipelines are set to start and it will be completed within three years. The new pipeline construction will be catering to the demand of 223.87 MLD. Also, an additional tender has been floated for up-gradation of pipelines,” he further said.
The commissioner assured the residents that the prevailing water issues will be solved soon and actions are being taken to provide short-term relief.