CHENNAI: Going by a recent technical report released by the World Bank, all the 21 urban local bodies that are part of the Tamil Nadu Climate Resilient Urban Development Programme (TNCRUDP), an initiative taken up by the state government with $300 million aid from World Bank (WB), fall under the category of high to extreme water risk.
The World Bank released the report quoting the assessment carried out using the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas.
It noted that more than 48% of urban Tamil Nadu has previously experienced issues with respect to water availability and unsafe sanitation. The 21 local bodies mentioned are Kancheepuram, Pudukottai, Tambaram, Salem, Dharmapuri, Nagercoil, Tiruvarur, Karaikudi, Dindigul, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, Tiruchy, Avadi, Vellore, Theni, Erode, Namakkal, Rajapalayam, Cuddalore, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli.
The severe northeast monsoon of 2015 led to record-breaking inundation in Tamil Nadu, which was followed the next year by the worst drought the state had witnessed in the past 140 years. During the summer of 2019, four major reservoirs experienced complete depletion, leading to a ‘Day Zero’ water crisis in Chennai. Out of the 1,943 tanks identified by the Ministry of Water Resources, a significant number have been revealed as sites for municipal waste disposal.
In most ULBs, the residents receive water for only one to three hours per day, with the frequency varying from daily to once in five days. Bulk water supply levels stand at 65 litres per capita per day (lpcd), while the national guideline is 135 lpcd. Thus, the public often depends on informal water supply (such as water trucks, private vendors or unregulated groundwater) to meet their needs. However, these sources tend to become unavailable and unsafe during extreme climatic events. The quality of service is further strained by uncontrolled non-revenue water (NRW), which leads to the wastage of freshwater sources.
While the tree cover could play a critical role in improving the adaptive capacity of the ULBs by limiting the impact of heat waves, an account of existing green spaces in the 21 ULBs, indicates that only four ULBs have more than one square metre per capita green space (WHO prescribes 9 square metre.per capita).
Furthermore, the Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines of the union government recommend 12% to 18% green cover in urban areas. Except for Krishnagiri, which has 1.45% green cover, the green cover in none of the other ULBs crosses 1% of the total area, the report stated.
Access to sanitation services is poor as well and raises public health concerns relating to water source contamination from flood and storm waters. For one-third of the ULBs with sewerage networks, the service coverage is less than 40%.
As such, a large part of the population still relies on sanitation that is not managed safely, which exposes them to health risks in the event of flooding. Women and children also suffer the most from the lack of improved sanitation, which causes diseases and increases the need for health care support, as well as absence from schools.