Residents of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s (TNSCB) housing unit at Malumichampatti on the city outskirts of Coimbatore staged a road roko on Wednesday demanding that the board provide a sufficient quantity of water on a regular basis. Residents said they have been facing water shortage for the past six months.
“Around two years ago, when we moved here, non-potable water was supplied twice a day and portable water was also supplied daily,” said Manikandan, a resident. “Non-potable water is now supplied for an hour in a day, and portable water is supplied once in two to three days,” he added.
They last received water on Monday. “In a housing unit that has about 1440 flats and over 2500 people, how fair it is to supply water just for one hour a day?”, he asked.
“As the water is supplied during the afternoon hours, it does not even last till the morning. Some even visit their relatives’ house to bathe,” he explained.
“Whenever the issue is escalated, TNSCB officials would send three to four trucks of water and forget about the issue until we raise our concern again,” said S Danushkodi, president of residents’ welfare association. The situation is worsening as more families began moving about six months ago, he added.
Families from five areas including Eachanari, Ukkadam, and Kumarasamy Nagar moved here, after the local bodies had demolished their houses which were constructed either on government land or along the water.
An official from TNSCB said, “We have eight borewells in the housing unit site. As the underground water level has reduced over a period of time, a sufficient quantity of water is not obtained from the borewells. We are in talks with the panchayat authorities to dig two borewells on the panchayat land. Once additional borewells are dug, their problem would be resolved.”
“In the case of drinking water, we have been supplying 50% more than the allotted quantity,” he added.
