Coimbatore: With drinking water supply from the Siruvani dam dwindling, the municipal corporation is planning to draw water from the Pillur dam.
Instead of 90 million litres a day (MLD) from Siruvani dam, the civic body is getting only around 55 MLD, a senior official said. “The corporation is planning to lift around 30 MLD additional water from the Pillur dam to compensate for the loss.”
The Kerala irrigation department, which is maintaining Siruvani dam, has brought down water storage level citing safety, resulting in shortage of supply to the city. There was no improvement in the supply despite Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin writing a letter to his Kerala counterpart on February 1.
Measures are being taken to supply water from Pillur in Siruvani water distribution areas as the frequency of distribution has come down, corporation commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara said on Saturday. “Residents should cooperate with the corporation by using water judiciously and reducing wastage,” he said.
Meanwhile, Coimbatore mayor Kalpana Anandakumar and deputy mayor R Vetri Selvan visited Pillur dam and took stock of the situation. They also inspected the Pillur drinking water project III. The project involves laying a pipeline through a tunnel in Kattanmalai for about 900 metres. Pipeline has been laid for 740 metres.
The mayor instructed the officials to speed up the works. She also instructed them to repair one of the six pumps, which has stopped working.
The mayor and deputy mayor later met electricity minister V Senthil Balaji. They briefed him about the drinking water situation and sought his advice to augment water supply. The mayor instructed officials to make use of tankers to supply water in places, where pipelines have not reached.