By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the pre-planned shutdown of water treatment plants (WTP) in Aruvikkara enters the second day, Kerala Water Authority (KWA) expects more people to demand for water on Saturday. Many parts of the city faced shortage much before the planned shutdown on Friday afternoon. “Residents have stored water as a result of warnings issued in advance. However, we expect more calls on Saturday,” said a senior officer with KWA. Authorities also started two more help lines to meet the demand. “We expect the work to be completed by December 14 and restore supply by December 15,” said G Sreekumar, KWA chief engineer (southern region). Water treatment plants with pumping capacities of 86 million litres per day (MLD) and 74 MLD were shutdown for renovation, affecting water supply in many areas. Demand on Friday mostly came from large institutions such as hospitals, police stations and kiosks. Water was distributed from Aruvikkara, KWA headquarters, PTP Nagar, Choozhattukotta and Attingal-Valakod. From Aruvikkara alone, 95 loads of water were distributed to different parts of the district from its 72 MLD WTP alone. Oolampara Mental Hospital required six loads of water. Each load carries 17,500 litres of water. Tankers carried 2,000 litres of water and 94 water kiosks were setup across nine locations in the city. Water vending units supplied water to individual customers, while the request from a location had to be routed through the assistant executive engineer of the location concerned. “There was confusion with regard to request for water. Many people contacted us directly for water. But we only have provision for direct supply to a particular consumer number,” said a KWA officer. The repair works worth `10 crore is expected to make the pumping station efficient by 95 per cent. The energy efficient pump set will help increase the capacity from 86 MLD to 96 MLD. Number of water kiosks installed in each location Peroorkada: 14 Pattoor: 14 Palayam: 5 Kowdiar: 15 Pongummoodu: 15 Kazhakoottam: 13 Karamana: 4 Thirumala: 4 Kuryathi: 10

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