Thiruvananthapuram: Several areas in capital in grip of water shortage
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Several areas in the city like Vellayambalam, Sasthamangalam, Peroorkada, Belhaven Gardens and Nanthencode, apart from the General Hospital, are in the grip of water shortage.
Private water tankers pass through the Vellayambalam - Kawdiar - Peroorkada - Sasthamangalam stretch daily after they fill water from the water works compound at Vellayambalam. They rake in the moolah whenever the tap goes dry in the city.
Mr Vishnu Lal, a resident of Jawahar Lane at Vellayambalam, who stays on the second floor apartment, is worried over the likely situation during the next summer.
"This time, my family decided to install new tanks for storage capacity at the ground level. So whenever water trickles in through the corporation pipeline, we can use it. Despite getting adequate rain, water supply has been scarce even during these months and the situation will worsen in the coming summer season," he said.
A senior citizen residing at Belhaven Gardens said that there was water scarcity for the last five days. "With several apartments mushrooming on Keston Road, the most affected are the residents of Belhaven Gardens. KWA officials claim that highrise apartments can't get water connection from the main line, which is difficult to believe," said the senior citizen.
On an average, 1,000 - 1,500 patients and their bystanders are present at the General Hospital. Kerala Water Authority superintending engineer Suresh Chandran blamed the hospital authorities for not constructing overhead tanks for storing water. But Dr. L. T. Saritha, superintendent, said that storage tanks do not get water now.
"We have adequate storage tanks at General Hospital. But over the last two days, we have been relying on private water tankers as well. When we asked for 10 tanker lorries with each having a capacity of 18, 000 litres, we got only three tanks from the Kerala Water Authority ," said Dr. Saritha.
The city dwellers had asked the Kerala Water Authority to make long-term contingency plans. It is on a mission to implement the Asian Development Bank's project-- '24/7 water supply scheme'--in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode cities in five years.
