Residents complain of water shortage

Coimbatore: The city corporation officials in March claimed to have enough water to keep the city hydrated until July.
However, residents in areas like R S Puram, supplied with Siruvani water, are seeing a dip in water supply. Peelamedu residents complain of delay in supply.
Sukanya Sarath, a resident of Bharathi Colony in Peelamedu, bought a lorry tanker of water two weeks ago, for the first time in three years. “We usually get water once every eight to 10 days, which used to be adequate to fill two large tanks we have. But now we get water only once in 14 days. We ran out after 10 days, two weeks ago and had to buy water,” she said.
Thayar Jayaraman, a resident of Surya Gardens at Bharathi Nagar said the residents are receiving water only once every 13 to 14 days.
Seetha Ravee, a resident of Peelamedu Pudhur, on the other side of Avinashi Road, also complained of delay in water supply.
On the western side of town, R S Puram is facing water shortage. Households hardly get 2,000l in 10 days. “Most of us manage with bore water and use the supplied water only for drinking and cooking,” said Sharmila R of Venkataswamy Road.
Corporation officials admit that they had to reduce the quantity of water supplied since water levels in Siruvani dam dropped. “Due to the extreme heat and lack of adequate summer rains, water level in Siruvani has dropped to 8.5ft as off Monday,” a senior corporation official said. “The quantity of water being given to us by TWAD has come down. Since Pillur dam had to be repaired on Monday, residents are seeing an extra day of delay,” he said. “Water levels in Siruvani needs to touch around 30ft for us to restore water supply to once every four days in the western part of the city or once seven to eight days in other parts.”