Denied water, MGR Colony residents take to streets

Nivedha Selvam | Updated: Apr 23, 2020, 10:37 IST

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COIMBATORE: Residents of MGR Colony near KNG Pudur Pirivu took to the streets on Wednesday to protest the prolonged delay in drinking water supply. Pointing out that they had received water only once since the lockdown, they said that was some 21 days ago.
They, however, didn’t compromise on wearing face mask and maintaining physical distancing as they squatted on road, where slots were marked for them, with water pots in their hands.
P Jayakumar, 45, a resident, said, “Until a couple of months ago, we used to receive drinking water at least once in seven days and non-potable water once in three to four days. But, the interval between two supplies widened to 15 days first and then to 21 days now.” There are 384 families in the locality (ward 6) and of them more than 350 families are depended on public taps.
“We had attempted to pool in money to buy water. But no one was ready to supply water during the lockdown. Some families, meanwhile, shared water with others. But, about a week ago most of us had run out of water,” he said.
Since then, a group of boys have been visiting neighbouring areas like Edayarpalayam and Marudhamalai Road to collect water from public taps, he said. “While the residents there initially opposed the move, they allowed us to draw water when we told them our situation. We have been collecting around 10 to 20 buckets of water daily from those locations and sharing that among us.”
Jayakumar said they had made several representations to the city corporation to supply them water at regular intervals as they didn’t want to step out of their houses daily to collect water during the Covid-19 pandemic. “There wasn’t any response from the civic body.”
As the residents took to the streets, the city corporation and police officials rushed to the spot and held talks with them. The residents were subsequently supplied drinking water.