Siruvani Dam has enough water

Siruvani Dam has enough water that can meet the city's drinking water demand for the next five months, according to the Coimbatore Corporation. The dam had on Tuesday (February 27) 51.58 ft of water, against the full reservoir level of 67.44 ft.

The civic body says this is enough to make a comfortable supply till the South West Monsoon sets in during the first week of June.

Assessment of the situation normally begins in mid-February.

This year's mid-February level of 56.62 ft was two ft less than last year's.

The Corporation, however, says that there is no cause for alarm though the level on Tuesday dipped by five ft since February 15.

The difference in the storage may be pointing at a rising population in the city, because the amount of rain in both years had more or less been the same.

Water overflowed from the dam for close to two months from July-end last year.

This had been possible because of heavy rain during the South West Monsoon. And this has helped in a good storage even now.

The sources say that this is the third comfortable summer the Corporation is heading for in terms of drinking water position, compared to the scarcity-hit ones from 2000 to 2003.

Though it is faced with the task of providing more than 20,000 house connections in 535 unapproved layouts, the Corporation does not think it will run into trouble.

The connections are mostly in the eastern part of the city that is served by the Pilloor water scheme.

The western section served by the Siruvani scheme has very few unapproved layouts and it is mostly made up of the old municipality areas.

The Corporation is already providing one million litres a day (mld) each to the Kuniamuthur and Kavundampalayam municipalities, out of its share of 83 mld of Siruvani water.

The Corporation says it draws courage from the position in the Siruvani Dam to provide water to other local bodies that are totally dependent on this dam.

Once the Pilloor Phase II scheme is implemented, the Corporation need not agonise over the storage figures during summer and frantically count the number of days left for the monsoon