COIMBATORE: Coimbatore city is likely to face water shortage in summer as the storage in Siruvani dam has fallen to 20 feet against its capacity of 50 ft. Officials from the TWAD board said the current water level in the dam will be enough to cater to the needs of the city till May 4.
Siruvani dam, which is one of the primary sources of drinking water for Coimbatore, is located in the Palakkad district of Kerala. Out of the total drinking water requirement of 265 MLD for the city, 101.40 MLD is drawn from the dam. With the storage dipping, the water drawn from the dam has been reduced to 64.28 MLD. “Of the 64.28 MLD of water, 58.53 MLD is supplied to CCMC areas. At present, the water level in the dam stands at 20.30 ft against its full storage capacity of 50 ft. The supply may soon be reduced to 8 MLD and we can supply water only till May 4,” a TWAD board official told TNIE.
Sources said officials are currently drawing 20 MLD from the Pillur scheme and supplying to Siruvani water supply areas to manage the situation. However, this has resulted in long intervals in the water supply frequency in the Pillur water supply areas. Officials have now appealed to people to utilise water judiciously.
CCMC Commissioner M Prathap told TNIE that they are planning to partially commission the Pillur scheme-3 project by the month of May to tackle the crisis during summer. Prathap said as the rainfall during the monsoon was not as expected in the water catchment areas of Siruvani dam, the level has decreased drastically.
“During summer, generally, water supply frequency is increased due to shortage. We shall be installing two separate lines for the TWAD and CCMC and then set up SCADA systems along with bulk flow meters while commissioning Pillur 3 to monitor the distribution system,” he said.