Summary:
Coimbatore: While the public residing in and around Saibaba Colony have been struggling without water supply for more than 15 days, gallons of water is flowing down the roads due to multiple leakages in the pipelines.“We had been waiting to get drinking water for almost two weeks. There is no co-ordination between the civic body officials, she added.“If the civic body continues to ignore the issue, the residents would be picketing the corporation office and go on fast until the issues are solved,” she added.Acknowledging that there are multiple leakages in the region, civic body officials said that they are working to fix the pipeline damages at the earliest and water would be supplied to the residents within a day. When the city corporation released the water, the amount of water that flowed on the roads is considerably more than the water flowed through the taps,” said R Sruthi, a resident of Saibaba Colony.Almost all the roads in and around the region including Chinasamy Street, KG Layout, Ganapathy Layout, Chindamani Nagar, Ramalingam Nagar, NSR Road and Church Road were cut at frequent intervals by private telecom companies during which the water and sewer lines were damaged at multiple places.At present, the civic body officials have been repairing major pipeline damages at seven places and water is leaking at more than 80 places in the region, said the residents, adding that despite several complaints, no action has been taken by the corporation officials.A household could not fill more than three to four buckets during a supply and the stored water does not last more than a couple days, she said, adding that they would not be able to use the water for drinking purpose as it is contaminated with sewage water and it stinks.While the residents said that they had been purchasing water for drinking purpose, the real problem lies in using water for domestic purpose as they could not afford to purchase so much water.“We have been using the contaminated water for domestic purpose including bathing and we do not have another option,” said R Akila, another resident, explaining that the region has been facing water scarcity even when all the reservoirs are brimming, and the situation is worse than what they had endured during the drought seasons a year ago.Of 28 borewells managed by the civic body, 12 are not functioning and the corporation is least bothered to repair them, said R Gayathri, former councillor, adding that whenever a complaint is raised, lack of fund is cited as the reason for not addressing the issues..