City under grip of water shortage as summer peaks

Kochi: As summer peaks, water shortage is worsening in several parts of the city. Kochi corporation is unable to arrange adequate truckloads of drinking water to the areas where Kerala Water Authority's (KWA) pipeline network fails to supply water.The corporation authorities have now approached district collector G Priyanka, demanding that measures should be taken to supply drinking water through tanker trucks. "As per the govt order, we can supply drinking water through tanker trucks to the tune of Rs 10 lakh/month maximum. Given the increasing water shortage due to summer, we have to supply more water through tanker trucks," mayor V K Minimol said. "If the cost of the water supplied through tanker trucks goes beyond Rs 10 lakh, the auditors will raise objections. That will create problems for us. At the same time, we are getting calls from councillors and residents in different regions in the corporation seeking more supply of drinking water through tank trucks. So, we met the district collector and requested her to take steps to provide drinking water using clauses in the Disaster Management Act," Minimol added. Meanwhile, delay in completing repair works also contributes to the water shortage. In Palluruthy, the residents have been demanding KWA to take urgent steps to repair a pipeline that burst a few days ago. "Unlike in the past, the time for repair work has gone up. Earlier, KWA was doing the repairs directly. Now, Suez, a private firm that was awarded the maintenance and operations of KWA's water supply system under ADB project, takes more time to complete its procedures," Minimol said. At the same time, KWA doesn't have any plans to mitigate the water shortage in the city. "In the past decade, no major projects to improve water generation have been done in Ernakulam. The proposal for constructing 190 million litre/day (MLD) at Aluva was included as part of the ADB project. Though we gave a detailed proposal to the govt, the state cabinet is yet to approve it," a KWA official said. Even while the govt is sitting on the 190 MLD project, the proposal to construct a 30 MLD water treatment plant that sources water from Kadambrayar near Kakkanad is being revived. "Earlier, we submitted a report that the project to fetch water from Kadambrayar is not viable. Kadambrayar is highly polluted, and its yield is very low as it doesn't have a wide catchment area," an official associated with the project said. "Now, KWA higher-ups from Thiruvananthapuram have sought fresh reports on constructing the plant. KWA's move is to revive the plan even as there is adequate fresh water in Periyar and Muvattupuzha rivers," he added.