Power outages affect water generation, pumping in Ernakulam

Kochi: Frequent power outages have disrupted drinking water generation at KWA's treatment plant at Chowara, the third largest facility in the district. Supply to several tail-end areas within the city has also been affected due to power failures at Thammanam and Thevara pumping stations.Certain city outskirts and Paravur municipality are affected due to disruptions in water supply from Chowara plant while places including Vyttila, Petta, Kadavanthra, Panampilly Nagar, Pachalam, Vaduthala and West Kochi face water shortage due to electricity failures in pumphouses including at Thammanam.KSEB is providing electricity to the KWA's treatment plant at Chowara using an aerial bunched cable and whenever there are adversities like wind or thunderstorm, the cables are snapped."In the past few days, we have been facing power outage at our Chowara plant. It cuts down potable water generation and disrupts our supply," a KWA official associated with the plant said. "We have already proposed a project to lay underground (UG) cables to the plant for which the govt gave nod to sanction Rs 4.9 crore. The govt has sanctioned only part a of it. Otherwise, we could have started the work. We are trying for one-time full payment and start the work soon. If UG cables are laid, we will be able to avoid frequent power disruption," the official said.Pumping from pumphouses like Thammanam is affected when there are power outages. "Once the power failure causes disruption in supply, it will be difficult for water to reach tail-end areas even if the pumping is resumed after the restoration of power," a KWA official said."In places like Vyttila and Petta, residents have not been getting adequate water ever since the KWA's storage tank at Thammanam collapsed partially. Though we took up the issue with the KWA and the district collector, no solution could be found," said Vyttila councillor V P Chandran. "If KWA can restore the storage tank's capacity by repairing it, pumping from the tank at Thammanam could be much more effective. Even after five months, the authorities could not find a solution to the issue," Chandran said.Water supply to Pachalam and Vaduthala areas has reduced significantly for the past several months. Power failures which affect operations of pumphouses are causing further dip. "Earlier, we were getting 2 million litres per day (MLD) each from Kalamassery and Thammanam pumphouses. Now, we get just 1 MLD from Thammanam and around 0.75 MLD from Kalamassery. Moreover, an Amrut project to replace old pipes is under way in Pachalam and Vaduthala area. The work sometimes causes pipe bursts and results in water supply disruption," Henry Austin, councillor from Pachalam said.