COIMBATORE: Drinking water shortage is looming large in Coimbatore as the water level in Siruvani has dipped to drastically low levels.The dam’s storage nosedived to 5.97 feet as of Saturday against its full reservoir level (FRL) of 49.53 feet.
“Due to a sharp dip in the water storage level, the water drawn from the dam has been reduced to 40 million litres a day (MLD) instead of the usual 101.4 MLD. The current storage level will be adequate to supply drinking water only till the middle of May month,” said an official of Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD).
However, intermittent summer rains in the catchment areas has prevented the dam from drying up and also led to a marginal increase in the water level.
“From 5.51 feet on 25 April, when the first spell of summer rains was recorded, the water storage in the reservoir rose slightly to 5.97 feet on Saturday due to moderate rains in the next few days. Water level in the dam was at 8.53 feet on 11 April. But the storage position was better at this time in the previous years. It was last in 2017 when the dam almost dried up and water was drawn from its dead storage point,” the official added.
With the maintenance of the dam under the control of neighbouring Kerala state, the authorities made a request a few months ago for the removal of accumulated silt from the reservoir to allow better storage during the ensuing monsoon showers.
With a month to go for the South West Monsoon to pick up, the summer showers are also likely to be only moderate thereby leaving remote chances for the Siruvani dam’s storage level to either fill up or go up significantly.
“The summer showers may bring heavy rains in some parts of Tamil Nadu, but the Western region barely gets good rains in these months. Over the next few days, Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur may receive from 80 to 100 mm of rain. So far, Coimbatore, as well most other districts across the state have received above-normal summer rains. Yet, this is inadequate to fill up the dam and the crisis will continue until the monsoon sets in,” said Dr S Ramanathan, head of Agro Climate Research Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).
Even though areas being fed by Siruvani water have been facing acute shortage of water, officials hope that the completion of the Pillur-III drinking water project will help in meeting the growing requirement. Already, the water requirement for half the population is met by the Pillur I and II projects.
“Almost 70 per cent of work in the Pillur-III project has been finished and the remaining will be finished in another two to three months. All the Siruvani fed areas are covered under this project, which envisages supply of 178 MLD of water to the entire city. Then, obviously the city will become water surplus,” said a senior official involved in the Pillur III project.
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