Residents of Tirunelveli Corporation will get drinking water round the clock in near future, says Commissioner

Residents of Tirunelveli Corporation to receive 24/7 drinking water supply soon; focus on distribution system improvements and waste management.

Residents of Tirunelveli Corporation would start getting drinking water round the clock in the near future once strengthening and streamlining of the distribution system was done as the civic body was getting surplus water from its sources including the recently executed Ariyanayagipuram Drinking Water Scheme, said Commissioner N. O. Sukhaputra.

“While the demand is 75 million litres a day, the supply from our sources stands at 83 MLD. So we can supply drinking water to our residents round the clock. But, the shortage is caused by leakage and other mismanagement, which need to be weeded-out,” he said at the Corporation council meeting held here on Thursday.

The Commissioner said the urban civic body was concentrating on replacing the age-old distribution pipes with new ones besides plugging breaches in the distribution pipes. Since the prime reason behind the short-supply was wastage of drinking water due to breaches, it was being addressed.

MDMK Councillor J. Sangeetha of ward 40, who was carrying a placard criticizing the Corporation for erratic drinking water supply, said the Commissioner’s tall claim was not practically possible as many parts in her ward were getting drinking water supply only on alternate days. “So, the Corporation, in a bid to divert the public ire, is making this claim of giving water supply 24 X 7,” she charged.

When chairperson of the Corporation’s Tirunelveli zone Maheshwari of ward 17 complained about the ‘erratic garbage collection’ in her ward, she said the garbage mounds along the streets were presenting nauseating picture to the residents as no waste was being collected from the residents regularly. When she wanted to know the exact number of men and material deployed by the private agency in her ward for collecting garbage, the official could not give any precise reply.

Even as the officials, who were asked by the Commissioner to respond to the Councillor’s reply, were not able to give any response, the visibly upset Commissioner castigated them saying that the officials had not come prepared for the council meeting and were ignorant of the vital information they had to provide.

Even when Mr. Sukhaputra provided the details about the total number of garbage collection vehicles and the personnel deployed in the Corporation’s all four zones by the private agency to which the work has been outsourced, Ms. Maheshwari said: “The number of vehicles and sanitary workers on record is really big, but the number of men and material deployed (by the private agency) for collecting the waste is very low. Consequently, garbage collection in my ward is in pathetic shape even as mounds of waste can be seen everywhere. So, the Commissioner needs to check the number of personnel and vehicle deployed in each ward for collecting waste,” Ms. Maheshwari said even as Mr. Sukhaputra was starring at the officials standing there without giving any reply.