Residents of Melsanankuppam village near Ambur town in Tirupattur, protested in front of the panchayat office on Thursday against the supply of unsafe drinking water for household consumption.
They said, the Melsanankuppam village has nine wards that come under the Madhanur Panchayat Union in Tirupattur. The village consists of six remote hamlets with around 6,200 families. With the temperatures soaring in the recent weeks, water supply to the households, including the street corner tanks, have not been provided by the local panchayat on a regular basis. The irregular water supply of has made residents trek at least 5 to 10 kilometres to fetch a few pots of water from the Ambur and Madhanur towns.
“The water supplied through tractors was salty and unfit for consumption. We can’t take the risk of providing such salty water to children for consumption. Even this salty water from tractors are supplied only once a week,” said S. Padma, a resident.
Panchayat officials said that on an average, 3.5 lakh litres of water is required for household consumption alone every day. Most of this water is sourced from five borewells that are maintained by the civic body. A total of six Over Head Tanks (OHTs) are in operation to provide water through pipelines and street corner taps.
However, the panchayat officials said that extreme heat for the past few weeks has reduced water levels in all borewells of the civic body. Reduction in water levels has made it difficult for them to provide water on a regular basis to the households. As a result, the water supply timing and days have been reduced to once in three days. Two new borewells that were dug up to 1,100 feet have also become dry.
As an alternative arrangement, panchayat officials said that three tractors were roped in to supply drinking water to households. Each tractor tanker has a capacity of around 6,000 litres. However, sine the water supplied through tractors were salty, the residents protested demanding safe drinking water regularly.
After being alert about the situation, the Oomerabad police and Madhanur panchayat union officials rushed to the village and pacified the agitated residents. Panchayat officials said that water from private borewells in Karapattu village, around five kms from Mel Sanam Kuppam, will be supplied to the residents in the coming weeks as water from borewells has been tested fit for consumption. This is a stop-gap arrangement before regular water supply from panchayat borewells are resumed, officials said.
