Water supply yet to be fully restored in parts of Kochi

Many parts of Kochi city continued to reel under drinking water shortage, leading to widespread protests against the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) as supply is yet to be normalised since the shutdown on August 7 for annual maintenance works.

While the shutdown was supposed to be a single-day affair, it effectively lasted more than one-and-a-half days following a major leak in Kalamassery on the afternoon of August 6. This meant that supply lines were completely dried out, disrupting water supply across several pockets in the city.

“It usually takes a week to 10 days before full normalcy is restored in supply following the shutdown for annual maintenance work. Normal water supply to areas towards the tail end of the supply network in the city will be restored after the boosting of the third line. The situation is likely to improve by Wednesday or the day after,” said a KWA official.

Ponnurunni East division of the Kochi Corporation had been facing water supply issues even before the annual shutdown. “Though our problem predates the shutdown, we have agreed to wait for the third pumping day for the situation to improve. The third pumping day falls on Tuesday night and will last for the next 24 hours. If things remain unchanged even thereafter, we will lay an indefinite siege to the office of the KWA Superintending engineer till our problems are resolved,” said Dipin Dileep, councillor, Ponnurunni East division.

He added that water scarcely reached households even on a slightly elevated point, while distributing water in tankers along narrow alleys was not practical either. The stopgap solution of boosting air valves by pumping water at high pressure has been done away with since that involved double billing for consumers.

“The problem is the lack of maintenance of adequate pressure in pumping from the Thammanam pump house. While it requires a pressure of 3.8 for the water to reach across the entire supply network, it is at best maintained at 3 to 3.4, which is inadequate and affects supply towards the tail end,” said Mr. Dileep.