TVM water crisis caused by lapses, probe report suggests action against 2 higher officials

There were major lapses in planning and supervision which led to unprecedented water crisis in Thiruvananthapuram from September 5 to 10, Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials who probed the crisis are learnt to have reported. Action is likely to be recommended against two highly-placed officials of the KWA who were in charge of co-ordinating the work. The findings of the inquiry will be presented in a meeting to be convened by Minister for Water Resources Roshy Augustine at noon on Thursday.

Sources confirmed that the grave error happened in planning given the nature of the work. Pipelines had to be shifted at two sites to facilitate railway doubling works. While initial assumption was that water supply would be fully affected in 33 wards and partially affected in 12 wards, nearly half of the city wards went without water for 5 days, making it one of the worst water crises borne by the city residents.

The work involved unforeseen complications like failure in opening of valve, minor landslips and this forced the authorities to go for a complete shutdown. There was no consultation with officials who had experience in handling such temporary shutdown which further aggravated the crisis. Once glitches started recurring in execution of work, supervision also erred. Once leakage was detected in valve, there was no other option but to cut the water supply from Aruvikkara.

Although action may be recommended against the officials for lapses in execution of work, the Government will have to brush aside the pressure of employees' unions to take any sort of disciplinary action, sources said.

The crisis was probed by the Technical member of the KWA. The official declined to comment on the matter. Vattiyoorkavu MLA V K Prasanth had sought a probe into factors that led to the water crisis in Thiruvananthapuram following realignment of pipelines and demanded strong action against the officials responsible for the issue.

In a letter to the Minister for Water Resources, he said the drinking water scarcity experienced by the residents had led to public sentiment against the state government and the city corporation. "It needs to be checked if there was any intentional move to cause this issue. The lapses of officials who have no knowledge about the water supply network of the city also need to be probed," V K Prasanth said in the letter.

He had said that the work could have been done by closing valves at Kannetumukku, Pallimukku and Karamana.

While water supply was restored after five days, many residents have been complaining of receiving turbid water which was not fit for use. The District Medical Officer also issued an advisory for proper treatment of water before consumption after the supply was restored.