During this On-Site Mission first a survey of pilot zone 6 as well as of the high level
tank, which is still under construction and is to replace the present direct supply of
the area through the Samudram Eri pumping station, has been carried out (Picture below).
Furthermore a new local employee - Mr M. Pradeep - was hired and introduced into the WaLUE Project.
The following day a meeting with the new commissioner of the city, Mrs. A. Sulthana took place. During this meeting the previous work of the WaLUE Project as well as the upcoming tasks of the actual On-Site Mission were presented. The commissioner assured her full support of the project as well as of all other tasks processed in its context. In a further topic of the conversation dealing with the city's support of a planned offer to TNUDF aiming at the implementation of a demonstrative operation for continuous (24x7) water supply in large areas of the WaLUE pilot environment, the commissioner was very interested yet still has to introduce this project to the city council first before being able to sign an "Expression of Interest".
In the further course of the On-Site Mission several talks with the city manager Mr G. Palani took place, during which economical data were talked about (such as e.g. previous and meanwhile verified annual accounts, discrepancies with the water taxes and fees as well as plans of the city for increasing the water fees).
After the clarification of the data a meeting with the city's chief engineer Mr P. Jothi Mani - was arranged. The subject of this meeting was the upcoming measuring campaign in cooperation with Mr P. Jothi Mani and the city's support required for it.
Summarized we can state that the On-Site Mission was a true success with regard to the target aims: The support of the new commissioner could be secured and seen already in directly providing the required number of employees necessary for processing the work packages of the WaLUE partners. The new local employee was assigned and introduced to the project, Furthermore new information referred to the financial situation of the water supply could be collected.
