No end to crisis despite pumping of more water

Thiruvananthapuram: By the end of March, Kerala water authority (KWA) began pumping additional water from Aruvikkara as a solution to the drinking water woes in the city during summer.
The quantity of additional water being pumped from Aruvikkara has touched 10 million litres per day since Saturday. Despite pumping of additional water, KWA has not been able to solve the issue of water shortage in elevated areas in the city.
The water authority has been supplying 270 million litres of water per day. It began supplying additional 5mld of water since March 31 after completing works to fix a new pipeline.
Recently, KWA began using polyaluminium chloride instead of alum for treating of water. The speedy treatment of water helped the water authority to pump additional 10mld water since Saturday.
“Currently, water is being treated using polyaluminium chloride on an experimental basis. We will file a report on it soon. Several modern treatment facilities are using polyaluminium chloride instead of alum. We will take a decision on continuing with the method after studying the report,” said a KWA official.
Though the supply of additional water could improve the drinking water availability in the city, elevated areas continue to face water supply disruption. Elevated areas in Jawahar Nagar, Peroorkada and Kesavadasapuram are facing water crisis for over two months.
The KWA helpline 8547638181 is getting several calls requesting for supply of water through tankers. The city corporation has also set up kiosks in areas such as Kowdiar and Jawahar Nagar to ensure adequate supply in such affected areas.
Joseph George, secretary of residents’ association at Benedict Nagar in Nalanchira, said that around six houses in elevated areas are facing serious drinking water issues for the past two months.
“For the past one and a half months, we have been asking KWA to fix a leak in one the major pipelines supplying water to our residential area. After waiting for such a long time, they have arrived only today. We feel that the situation will improve once the leak is plugged,” George said.
The water level at Peppara dam has been dropping as the catchment areas did not receive enough pre-monsoon rain. The current level is 100.7 metres. KWA officials said that the water will be enough for supply till May end when the southwest monsoon will hit the state.