Chennai: A meeting was conducted today at the Secretariat, chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to devise ways to address the impending water crisis that stares at the face of the city.
The meeting saw Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani, Chief Secretary Girija Vaidhyanathan and officials from Chennai Metro Water take part. The discussions undertaken might be crucial for fending off water woes because, according to an official from Metro Water, the city’s reservoirs totally hold only 1 tmc ft of water.
Speaking to News Today, joint director and public relations manager at Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) R Neelakandan said, “At present, Chennai’s waterbodies hold a little more than 1 tmc ft of the total 11 tmc ft. Taking that into account, water in the major catchment areas may well be exhausted within the next 45 days.”
According to the official, Veeranam is the only lake that has adequate storage at present.
“We get 180 millions of litres per day (mld) from Veeranam while desalination plants provide a total of 200 mld for the city’s water needs,” he said. At present, the department takes 270 mld from Chennai’s reservoirs.
Official data as of today states that Poondi lake has 200 mcft to its total storage capacity of 3,231 mcft. Similarly, Cholavaram has just 48 mcft to 1,081 mcft, Red Hills, 741 mcft to 3,300 mcft and Chembarambakkam has only 53 mcft out of total capacity of 3,645 mcft. Together, the total comes to 1,042 mcft or roughly 1 tmc ft.
Asked if the government will once again look to tap water from quarries and agricultural wells, he answered in the affirmative and said, “When the lakes dry up, the government will look to tap water from quarries, agri wells and Porur lake as well.” He did not reveal the specifics of the water capacity at Porur lake at the moment.
In 2017, to fend off water crisis, the government set up a temporary water treatment plant at Porur lake and drew water from it effectively.
Reports have been flowing in that many areas get water supply only once in two days. Countering it, Neelakandan said water is being supplied with adequate pressure every day.
“Street supply was reduced from 830 mld to 650 mld four months back due to the monsoon failure. In areas where pressure is less, street supply has been initiated,” he said.
Another major issue that the city faces is the plummeting groundwater level and increase in salinity of the water. According to Nithyanand Jayaraman, a social activist who has been following the issue, increase in Chennai’s residential area coupled with encroachment of water catchment areas are the main reasons for such results.
‘In the ’80s, Chennai’s residential area was 47 sq km while by the turn of the century is over 400 sq km. At the same time, waterbodies have been encroached upon at a massive rate for real estate. I find it difficult to understand the move to use the same real estate to catch rainwater to replenish groundwater levels,” he said.
Social activists state that the dipping groundwater levels are testimony to the fact that the State government’s mandated rainwater harvesting rule has failed.
However, there is good news as well as in September last year, groundwater increased in areas such as Adyar, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Madhavaram, Perungudi, Sholinganallur, Teynampet and Valasaravakkam by 0.68 m than in August due to showers. This is due to the areas having clayey soil which allows for better percolation of rainwater.
However, areas such as Manali, Tiruvottiyur and Tondiarpet that are in the sandy region, showed a slow rise but better water retention as opposed to clayey regions which do not retain water as well.
The Metro Water Department is also testing total dissolved salts (TDS) at 145 observation wells. The permitted TDS range is between 500-2,000 parts per million (ppm). Sholinganallur had in September recorded 3,000 ppm for reference.