CHENNAI: The Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat has started sourcing water from Madambakkam through water tankers even before the Rs 3-crore Madambakkam Scheme has kicked off. The scheme proposes to supply water to Chitlapakkam from Madambakkam through an underground pipeline.
According to residents of Madambakkam, water tankers extracted water from the sump constructed for the Chitlapakkam Water Scheme from April 15 to April 17. “The Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat’s executive officer accompanied the tankers and said that the water was for election emergency,” said G Rajendran, secretary of the Save Madambakkam Lake Committee.
But, residents found that the water was supplied to Chitlapakkam residents, through an advertisement in a local newspaper thanking the Chitlapakkam EO for the water supply. “The executive officer lied to us, so we have temporarily stopped the extraction of water through tankers,” said K Mohandas, treasurer of the Save Madambakkam Lake Committee. Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat executive officer Venkatesan has denied these allegations.
Since the commencement of the project, residents of Madambakkam had been worried about rising in water mafia that would completely drain Madambakkam’s groundwater resources. This incident has only added to their suspicions.
The Madambakkam Scheme proposes to extract around 20 lakh litres of water from the Madambakkam lake every day and send 18 lakh litres to Chitlapakkam. However, the combined water from tanks in Chitlapakkam is only six lakh litres, which then raises questions about Chitlapakkam’s plans to hold excess water.
“The panchayat will invariably allow the tankers to transport water to Chitlapakkam and then the mafia will begin controlling price and stop water supply through the pipelines,” said Krishnan, president of the Save Madambakkam Lake Committee, explaining they had no problems sharing water with Chitlapakkam if they are able to quench their thirst first.
“The water will be pumped through pipelines in the morning to certain areas and again the tanks will be filled in the afternoon to supply to other areas,” said Venkatesan, claiming that tankers would not be used in future. However, how the remaining six lakh litres will be supplied is a mystery.
Currently, Madambakkam is reeling under acute water shortage with residents in most areas being forced to deepen their borewells to access the groundwater. Express had reported how various norms had been flouted to gain approval for the Chitlapakkam Water Scheme which proposes to transport water sourced from wells dug in the Madambakkam Lake over six kilometres to Chitlapakkam. The project has progressed even as PILs seeking its cancellation are being heard in the Madras High Court.