Shut down on KWA plant may cause water supply disruptions in tail end areas

Kochi: The shutdown of Kerala Water Authority's (KWA) water treatment plant at Aluva, scheduled for Wednesday, will cause water scarcity in tail-end areas for at least a week. It is part of annual maintenance.According to KWA's official communication, the maintenance works will be completed by 6pm and supply will be resumed immediately. But it will take at least one week for the water to reach tail end areas once the plant is shut down. "Once the plant is completely shut down, its impact will last at least for a week. The supply to the areas where the main pipelines pass through will be resumed immediately," sources with KWA said. As per the communication issued by KWA, water supply to Kochi corporation limits, Aluva, Kalamassery, Eloor and Thrikkakara municipalities and Edathala, Keezhmadu, Choornikkara, Cheranelloore, Mulavukad, Elamkunnapuzha and Njarakkal panchayats will be disrupted when the plant is shut down. According to KWA officials, carrying out the annual maintenance work is important. "We need to complete repair work, especially those related to the electrical parts, before monsoon. If we fail to carry out such works, it may lead to power failures due to the formation of fungus on electrical tools causing short circuits. Last year, we didn't carry out the annual maintenance and had to face failure of a lot of devices during the monsoon due to short circuits," a KWA official said. Several places in the city have been facing an acute shortage of potable water since the summer peaked. "Water shortage has been a major issue in areas like Pachalam and Vaduthala. The issue has been worse for the past five days. Water supply to areas like Pallikavu Road and by-lanes, SSKS Road, Swagath Road, Assisi Lane and Chinmaya Crossroad has been completely cut off," councillor Henry Austin said. "We supply water using tanker trucks in these areas. As the trucks won't go to the by-lanes, people have to collect water from trucks using pots," he said. A pipe-laying work under Amrut project is under way, and it is learnt to have caused leaks in the pipelines, Austin added.