Water Pipeline Damage puts MCC residents in Hardship

Water Pipeline Damage puts MCC residents in Hardship

Mangaluru: Seems like when it comes to water supply by Mangaluru City Corporation to its residents, the problems will never end. Not long ago, Mangaluru went dry without water for nearly five days after two water pipelines burst in Kannur, near Adyar. Once again, one of the pipelines got damaged a little distance away from where the pipelines had burst earlier. Due to this many city residents depending on the MCC had to shell our big bucks to get water supplied through water tankers, and it seems like it’s happening again due to non-supply of water by MCC because of the pipeline burst near Adyar.

Speaking to Team Mangalorean, Richard D’Souza, an engineer with MCC said, “Couple days ago, of the two pipelines, one that pumps water to Padil storage unit and the other to the storage unit at Bendore-well got damaged due to heavy mud debris fallen on the pipeline. Due to the damage to the pipeline water supply was stopped couple days ago. As the two pipelines have been interlinked due to illegal connections midway between Padil and Thumbay, water supply in the other pipeline was also stopped. The damage to the pipeline was at the joint, and since the pipeline was buried at a huge depth, we had to use four earth-movers to excavate soil to locate the damage. With all the efforts put in we tried to fix the damage by Thursday morning”.

“Unfortunately, our efforts were not successful, since the pipeline burst again on Thursday, and we had to stop the supply of water on both the pipelines. Although the corporation was forced to pump water through one of the lines from the Thumbay Vented Dam across the Netravathi early on Wednesday morning after noticing extensive leakage, that didn’t last long. Since another main line too is linked to the leaking line through illegal tapping of the main lines, pumping had to be stopped through the other line too by Wednesday afternoon. It was difficult to locate the leakage point as the lines had gone beneath debris illegally dumped on them. We are trying to fix the damage by late Friday, so that City residents can have the water. But everything depends on the weather and good luck.” added D’Souza.

It should be noted that despite last time’s five-day man-made water famine, MCC did not clear the entire length of the debris. Mangaluru went without water for five days after two pipelines burst near Adyar. At that juncture, the then Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim had issued strict instructions to the MCC to remove the debris dumped on the pipelines which not only increased pressure on the lines; but also prevented the authorities to plug leakage, if any. But as always, that’s how our MCC officials and engineers are wasting tax-payers money for their carelessness and stupidity.