KOCHI: We may finally have a permanent solution to the acute water shortage faced by the city, which is, currently, facing a supply deficit of nearly 200 million litres a day (MLD).
The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has sent a Rs 750-crore proposal to the Union government to set up a water treatment plant at Kalamassery that will supply around 190 MLD of water.
The project proposal was submitted five months ago and is now being modified by the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) wing of KWA after the Centre asked for a few minor changes. The department is hoping to secure a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with assistance from the Central government to implement the project.
The KWA will submit the modified report within a few days. "The Central government will then go ahead with measures to avail a loan from JICA. We expect work on the project to start by the end of the year,'' said Mathew Joseph, superintending engineer, the JNNURM wing of KWA. The project can be completed in three years after work begins.
Water from Periyar in Eloor will be treated at the plant to be set up at Kalamassery. "We have requested the state government to allot 10 acres of land near HMT, Kalamassery, for the project. A seven-kilometre-long inflow pipeline will be constructed to bring water from Eloor to Kalamassery,'' Joseph said. Water will be supplied to areas such as Eloor, Kalamassery, Thrikkakara, Maradu, Chellanam, Kumbalam and Kumbalanghi municipalities and Kochi city.
Once the project becomes a reality, it will help to meet the drinking water requirement of entire Kochi and its suburbs. As per the latest statistics available with KWA, Kochi and neighbouring areas require around 425 MLD of water. As of now, the supply from Aluva plant of KWA comes to about 225 MLD.
When the Maradu drinking water project is commissioned, 100 MLD, drawn from the Muvattupuzha river, will be available for the city. The water from the Maradu plant is expected to meet the demand of west Kochi.
The additional supply, when all these projects are commissioned, will cater to big projects such as SmartCity and Metro village.
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