TIRUCHY: Residents of Kamarajapuram near Lalgudi in the district say they have been facing water supply issues for more than three years now. The close alignment of supply pipelines is among the issues they point to for the irregular supply.
The village of over 500 residents receives water through two pipelines, sources said. The first pipeline originating from the Pullampadi water tank supplies drinking water, while the other reaching the village from Vadugarpatti borewell is used for other purposes.
Ward member SA George said the alignment of the two pipelines is the major cause for the irregular supply. "The pipelines are laid together. In the case of one of them getting damaged, the other too gets affected. We requested the authorities concerned several times to lay them separately. One of the pipelines would at least be spared then. The pipelines got damaged at least four times over the past two years," he said.
It takes almost four months to fix the damage, and the struggle is unbearable during the time, George further said. Sources said that the residents rely on tankers for supply then.
Villagers said the pipes first sustained damage around two years ago when the panchayat road was being upgraded into a highway road (the Tiruchy-Chidambaram NH). Last month, the entire pipeline got damaged when a ditch was dug over bridge work. They are yet to be repaired, the residents said.
Further, both drinking and borewell water have been stored in a single tank in the village, residents said. A Celine, one of the residents, said, "Both drinking and borewell water are stored in the same tank, despite having an unused tank nearby. We raised the issue several times with the authorities. The water often gets contaminated, and the kids have been falling sick."
The unused tank, built eight years ago, does not have a pipeline connection, the villagers claimed. When contacted, The Pullambadi block development officer said, "The order to fix a pipeline was issued only recently. The work will be carried out in a way that the pipelines don't incur damages."