Road roko for water supply

[1]

Several residents, particularly women, of Pushpa Nagar at Nungambakkam on Thursday picketed the area office of Chennai Metro Water demanding better water supply.

The homemakers, irked by official apathy and the need to continuously petition officials, complained that they used to receive water supply for a meager two-and-a-half hours earlier, but even that has been reduced now.

“We do not collect water for the first half hour of the total two hours. We let that go down the drain as it would not be potable.

So we are left with only an hour-and-a-half for all of us to collect water,” complained Rajammal, a housewife who stood with an empty pot in her hand.

The area secretary of the CPM, S.K. Murugesh, said there are only about 90 hand pumps in the street corners for the 700-odd Slum Clearance Board tenements and they have very little time to collect water. Often, many people get just a pot of water.

Also, women quarrel regularly as they vie with each other to collect water in the available time, he said.
Murugesh said that the quantum of water supplied to them was frequently reduced and the water allocated to them was being diverted to private parties.

In the evening, metro engineers arrived, checked the hand pumps and assured that the water supply would be augmented.

The engineers have also assured the residents of the area that steps would be taken to improve the quality of water supplied to them.