The inmates and staff members of the central prison complex here will soon get piped water supply under the Cauvery Joint Drinking Water Supply Scheme. Prison and Corporation officials have decided to work out the modalities.
A consultative meeting was held between the civic body, led by Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar and Corporation Commissioner P. Ashok Kumar, and the Prison Department, represented by G.B. Senthamarai Kannan, DIG (Vellore). “The Corporation is amenable to our request for regular piped water supply. It has also promised us technical support for handling waste generated in the prison complex,” Mr. Senthamarai Kannan told The Hindu.
Spread over 153 acres, the prison complex has 1,350 inmates, including 150 women. It also houses 250 quarters that accommodate over 800 families of the prison staff. Around 250 prison staff members, who are on duty at a time in the complex, use over 5,000 litres of water every day. Water is drawn from four borewells and four deep wells to nine sumps (six have a capacity of 50,000 litres and three 20,000 litres). A overhead tank is also located in the complex with a capacity of 20,000 litres. It mainly caters to the inmates.
With the searing heat, sourcing water from the traditional wells and the borewells has been a challenge, prison officials said. Most of the water supplied to the complex is salty. A lone water purifier, with a capacity of 1,000 litres (per hour), is located in one of the housing quarters.
Hence the prison officials and the Corporation have teamed up to ensure regular water supply under the Cauvery Joint Drinking Water Supply Scheme being executed by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board. The scheme covers villages, towns, municipalities and the lone Corporation in Vellore, Ranipet and Tirupattur districts.
