Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Siruvani storage rises steadily

By K.V. Prasad

COIMBATORE, JUNE 11. A gush of happy tidings seems to flow from the Siruvani dam to the city and other areas that remained parched this summer.

Rain gives hopes

After fours years of disillusionment, the dam that was deceived by monsoon - the main culprit being the South West Monsoon - a thick cloud cover in the direction of the dam is reason enough for the city and suburbs to cheer up. Also, torrential rain in Palakkad, indicating the onset of the monsoon, has given rise to hopes of the storage reaching the full reservoir level (FRL) of 67.65 ft.

The City Engineer of the Coimbatore Corporation, R. Raghunathan, said a day's rain on Thursday led to rise of storage by 90 cm till this morning. The storage now is at 31.02 ft. To reach the FRL, the monsoon should help fill up the rest 36.63 ft. However, nothing is said with any certainty that the storage will touch the FRL.

What gives it an outside chance is the prediction of a normal monsoon and the fact that during the last four years the level was way below the present one when the monsoon set in. However, there is only cautious optimism among the water managers, given the harsh experience with the monsoon.

Now, the city and other areas dependent on the Siruvani scheme are busy guessing whether the storage will help bring about a change in the schedule of supply of drinking water. While the city is supplied water once in four days, it is an endless wait in the town panchayats and panchayats.

Major change unlikely

The Corporation has indicated that there may not be any major change. Though it anticipated demand to restore daily supply that was stopped in June 2000, the maximum extent it may go to is reverting to alternate day supply. The civic body had maintained that even with alternate day supply, the World Health Organisation recommended 110 litres per capita per day could still be made. The shift to once in four days, it said, still helped make a supply of 80-90 lpcd. (The total drawal from the Siruvani dam is around 35 million litres a day)

Hence, the Corporation may contemplate increase in the quantum/duration of supply than any wholesale revision of the schedule. The only likelihood is alternate day supply. But, if the rain far exceeds expectations, daily supply may not be impossible.

Siruvani or Pilloor

However, having suffered because of liberal supply during better days, the Corporation now feels that persuading people to use Siruvani or Pilloor water only for drinking and cooking is vital to sustain storage till the end of next summer. "This will ease the pressure on both schemes. The aim will be to persuade people to use borewell water for all other purposes. The most alarming discovery is that even to wash a kerchief, five litres of Siruvani water is consumed. This has to change," Mr. Raghunathan said.

Already, a private organisation had been given the task of studying optimum use of water from 250 borewells in the city, he added.

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