Tiruvannamalai village protests over weeks-long water supply halt

Residents of Keel Pudupakkam, a village near Cheyyar town in Tiruvannamalai district, staged a protest on Tuesday against the prolonged disruption of drinking water supply to households.

The village is home to around 2,500 families. With temperatures rising in recent weeks, the local panchayat had been supplying water to homes and street-corner tanks on a regular basis. That supply has since become irregular, forcing residents to travel 5 to 10 km to Cheyyar and Vembakkam towns to collect a few pots of water.

"The panchayat has completely stopped water supply to households in the hamlet for many weeks. As groundwater in the area is salty, we depend on water provided by the civic body for consumption," said B. Kanchana, a resident.

Around 10 a.m., villagers gathered at the centre of the village and protested against panchayat officials, demanding that supply resume. Police and revenue officials reached the spot and pacified the crowd, which dispersed peacefully after receiving assurances from the authorities.

"We have instructed panchayat officials to ensure regular water supply for consumption. We will also ensure that such basic amenities are available to residents without any delay," a revenue official said.

Panchayat officials said the village needs more than 1.25 lakh litres of water every day for household consumption alone. Most of this is drawn from two borewells in the Cheyyar river and pumped to four overhead tanks in the village.

Officials said the motor pump sets used to draw water from the riverbed borewells were defunct and must be repaired before regular supply can resume. They added that the affected residents live in tail-end areas, which has resulted in water from the overhead tanks not reaching them. Until the pump sets are repaired in the coming days, efforts are being made to supply water to these areas through private tanker lorries.