CHENNAI : 4,100 waterbodies, but metro still thirsty Chennai Corporation’s target was to provide 135 litres per capita per day (LPCD) of piped water supply by 2017 under the XIIth plan. But with the rising population and stress on water resources due to irregular monsoon, Chennai Metro Water is providing less than half, according to an expert.
On condition of anonymity, the expert said that currently the piped water supply in the city could be around 50 to 60 LPCD, which is quite minimal, the issue being the availability of water.
Barring the two desalination plants of 100 MLD capacity each, water in the four reservoirs — Red Hills, Chembarambakkam, Poondi and Cholavaram usually ends up in dead storage before the arrival of monsoon. While Metro Water is planning to have 750MLD of regular water supply from desalination plants, S Janakrajan, former professor of Madras Institute of development studies and President of South Asia Consortium for Inter-disciplinary water resources studies questions the idea behind it as Chennai is set to expand to 8,878 square kilometres.
“Do you know we have 4,100 waterbodies in Chennai. It has the largest rainfall (1300mm) when compared with Jaipur (600mm), Hyderabad (800mm) and Bengaluru (800mm). It is a water state and is a mega water shed. There is something seriously wrong if you are concentrating only on desalination plants, which if materializes will cater to two-thirds of Chennai. Somebody has to be penalised for overlooking waterbodies,” Janakrajan says.
He also questioned the failure in building the fifth reservoir for city in the last five years to store only 1 TMC feet of water by spending Rs 350 crore. “It is a waste of money,” he reasoned.Currently, water demand in Chennai metropolitan area is more than 1,044 MLD and piped water supply is absent in most parts of the city. While officially, Chennai Metro Water claims to be supplying 710MLD of water to the city, the supply has been cut short to 550 to 600MLD of water. A planning commission report has stated that Chennai could face a significant gap in availability by 2026, even after considering ground water, wastewater re-use and desalination.
It is learnt from experts that the state has prepared an Urban Water Security Plan to map, renew and protect water sources both surface and groundwater but it has yet to be implemented. The XIIth plan has suggested the state should address long-term water security needs by implementing strategies which include river basin renewal, ground water replenishment and creation of water grids.