Meeting water needs this summer may not be a problem, if the assurances given by Coimbatore Corporation officials are anything to go by. The officials said that the water levels in reservoirs that meet the city’s drinking water needs are comfortable and that the civic body will be able to tide over the summer with ease.
The water position in the Siruvani Reservoir stood at 23.32 ft as against the full reservoir of 49.50 feet. With the Corporation receiving around 60 million litres a day (MLD) from the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Corporation engineers say that the water will be sufficient till the end of May, by which time the South-West Monsoon would have arrived.
The Corporation usually supplies Siruvani water to 31 wards but has now reduced it to 25 wards as part of its water management policy and meets the needs of the six wards with water from the Pilloor Reservoir.
As for the supply from the Pilloor Reservoir is concerned, the engineers say that the Corporation receives 20 MLD under the Pilloor I scheme and another 105 MLD from the Pilloor II scheme to take care of water requirements of residents in over 65 wards.
For meeting the needs of residents in the remaining wards, the Corporation supplies water from River Bhavani under the Kavundampalayam-Vadavalli scheme and River Aliyar under the Aliyar Drinking Water Supply Scheme.
The engineers say that at present the Corporation is supplying water once in five to six days for most parts of the city and once in seven to eight days for other parts. In the days to come, the civic body may increase this to once in 10 days to ensure equitable distribution.
The Corporation will face no problem in the distribution of groundwater as well, what with the water level in tanks in the city at a comfortable position, say the engineers.
The Corporation supplies groundwater from over 2,000 borewells and it hopes to continue that way as the yield from all the wells are good.
Meanwhile, the demand for water supplied through lorries has picked up. In the last week, the water suppliers have seen the demand go up, says K.S. Ramalingam, president, Coimbatore Tanker Water Lorry Owners’ Association.
Most of the 140 members are seeing their lorries make two to three trips and this is likely to increase to five to six trips a lorry. The association members run close to 3,500 lorries.
The demand at present is from restaurants, hotels and other commercial establishments. In the coming days, the association expects apartment owners to also relay on water supplied through lorries, he adds.