Residents in Alappuzha town heave sigh of relief as water supply resumes after pump maintenance

Alappuzha: Thousands of residents in the Alappuzha town and nearby panchayats have been suffering for four consecutive days due to disruptions in the drinking water supply. Now, they can let sigh of relief as the water authority has completed the maintenance works. The leakage problems in Kadapra, Thiruvalla that caused major issues were solved by 5 pm yesterday.

Meanwhile, the trail pumping to check whether there are more leakages was done at 6 pm before resuming pumping from the Pampa River by 8 pm. The pumping to the town was resumed by 10 pm, only after the drinking water tank at Karumadi water treatment plant was filled.

The drinking water supply was stopped in these areas from March 11 onwards as leakages were found on the 1000 AM main pipe near Kadapra in Thiruvalla that is used to pump water from the Pampa River to the drinking water purifying plant in Karumadi.

The leakage was spotted where the HDPE pipe joins the 100 MMMS pipe. The pumping was stopped and the repairing works, led by the water authority officials, were started by noon on March 11. Meanwhile, the authorities said that the repairing works took time as the damages were quite complex.

Drinking water supply was disrupted at various places in Alappuzha municipality as well as in Mannancherry, Aryad, Mararikulam South, Ambalapuzha South and North, Punnapra South and North, Purakkad and Thakazhi panchayats.

Although drinking water was supplied everyday in five tankers in Alappuzha municipality, it was not efficiently done in the panchayats. Residents in those areas are annoyed by the apathy of elected representatives and district authorities who were not effectively addressing the water supply crisis.