Punalur braces for seasonal water scarcity as summer sets in

As the summer heat begins to peak, the familiar specter of water scarcity has once again begun to haunt the residents of Punalur municipality.

Despite being situated in a region defined by its waterbodies, many wards are already reporting dry taps, leaving the local population in a state of perennial anxiety over basic survival needs. For residents, the change in season brings a gruelling shift in daily life. “It is exhausting to live this way every summer,” says Linda P., a homemaker. “You can’t cook, you can’t clean, and you can’t even do simple chores. It feels like we are constantly rationing every single cup of water just to get through the day. All we want is a reliable supply so we don’t have to worry about this every year.”

Deficit

The crisis is rooted in a massive gap between demand and supply. According to M.A. Rajagopal, municipal chairperson, the town requires approximately 12 million litres of water a day (mld). However, the existing infrastructure, which is nearly 45 years, offers a mere 4.5 mld, leaving a staggering deficit that the civic body has been struggling to bridge ever since.

To provide temporary relief, the municipality previously invested over ₹4 crore to lay a pipeline from Panamkuttimala, connecting the Japan Drinking Water Project to the main tank near the Government Higher Secondary School. While this was intended to add 5 mld to the local grid, the solution has proven ineffective. “We are currently receiving water from the very last tank of the Japan project, which is hardly full,” says the chairperson.

Manjamonkala project

Faced with the threat of a parched summer, the municipality is shifting its focus to the Manjamonkala project in nearby Vilakkudy grama panchayat. The civic body has announced it will hand over ₹73 lakh to the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) this week to initiate water sourcing from this project. “But even that will not happen this summer,” he adds. For a long-term fix, the municipality has submitted an ambitious ₹40 crore project for inclusion in the AMRUT 2.0 scheme. However, officials admit that this permanent overhaul will take a couple of years to materialise.

In the meantime, the municipality has deployed two tankers to supply water to the hardest-hit wards. As the mercury continues to climb, authorities plan to increase the number of tankers to ensure that no household is left entirely without water.