Corporation asks for urgent intervention by district administration to resolve water crisis

Kochi: With the drinking water crisis aggravating in the city, Kochi corporation is planning to conduct a meeting with the district administration to explore measures to provide water to residents in the areas where water shortage is severe.As of now, the corporation can supply water through tanker trucks up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakh/month, which is not enough to meet the increasing demand. Though the corporation sought legal opinion last week to spend more on water supply through tanker trucks, lawyers advised against it. "They were against it as the auditors will object. As per the legal opinion, the officials responsible for supplying water above the limit will have to pay out of their pocket," mayor V K Minimol said. "At the same time, the demand for drinking water is increasing each day. People and residents' associations are demanding supply of drinking water through tanker trucks to their areas. Though we sent a request to the district administration to provide drinking water to the worst-hit areas in the city using funds under Disaster Management Act, no action has been taken so far," Minimol said. Now, corporation authorities are planning to conduct a meeting with district administration to sort out the issues. "The district collector and officials are busy with electioneering. Once the polling is over, we will hold a meeting with district collector. We hope that there will be some relief to the issue," the mayor said. Several places in Kochi, including Kadavanthra, Vyttila, Pettah, Pachalam, Vaduthala, Palluruthy and Edakochi, are facing acute drinking water shortage. Meanwhile, incidents of pipe bursts at certain places in Kochi and surrounding areas also added to the water crisis. Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials said they completed repairs in various parts of the city. "For laying a new pipeline to the Pettah area, road-cutting permission from National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is needed. For this, we need to pay Rs 2 lakh as road-cutting charges. NHAI will only accept online payment, while a special order from KWA head office is needed for the same. We can resolve the issues at places like Pettah, only after the new pipes are laid," a KWA official said.