Chennai: “The water usage for agriculture has doubled when compared to what was actually required and this is a concern which needs to be addressed and the formation of Jal Shakthi Ministry is a first step towards the same,” said U P Singh Secretary, Dept of Water Resources, River Development, Ganga and Dept of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakthi, Government of India at the Virtual Conference on Chennai Water Management, organised recently by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with the theme ‘Making Chennai Water Resilient; Vision 2030’.
T Prabhu Shankar Executive Director, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), spoke on the various initiatives taken by the board to enhance water management in Chennai and highlighted that technology upgradation is an essential for sustainability of water utilities.
Thangam Meganathan, Chairperson, CII Chennai Zone and Chairperson, Rajalakshmi Institutions, in her welcome address mentioned that the vision of CII to create Chennai City a water surplus city by 2030.
Hari K Thiagarajan, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu and executive director, Thiagarajar Mills Pvt. Ltd highlighted the key contributions by CII in terms of Water Management.
Ranganath N K, Past Chairman, CII Tamilnadu and Water Ambassador, Grundfos Pumps India Private Ltd., spoke on the need to have an integrated approach to water management in our country.
The conference aimed to bring together multiple stakeholders across government and policy makers, industries, water management experts, civil society groups to discuss on the variety of solutions that can help sustain the effective water management in Chennai in the years to come. Due to the pandemic situation the conference this year was organised through a Virtual platform for the convenience of the attendees.