City’s first water supply came into existence in 1881

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Madras was surviving on shallow wells and tanks until the city’s first water supply system came into existence in 1881.



Metro Water sources said the first project to supply water to Chennai city from Red Hills lake was executed by a British civil engineer Fraser.



Fraser built an intake tower in Red Hills, known as Jones Tower in 1881 at Red Hills Lake. And water from Red Hills lake was conveyed through an open earthen channel by gravity into masonry shaft at Kilpauk and distributed without treatment or pumping.



This system of supply however continued till 1914 when several major improvements were effected to the water supply system by one Madeley, a special engineer in Water Works Corporation of Madras. He was the pioneer for the design and execution of the Madras City water supply and sewerage system, according to records available with Metro Water.



Thus came the existence of Kilpauk Water Works building, which was constructed based on the Indo-Sarcenic style of architecture and commissioned on December 17, 1914.



Meanwhile, an underground masonry conduit was also commissioned in the year 1914 to convey raw water from Redhills lake Jones Tower to Kilpauk Water Works in the place of old open earthen channel.



This was the first major milestone towards protected water supply by adopting slow sand fileteration to purify water. Seventeen slow sand filters to purify water and four underground storage tanks to store filtered water were constructed.



Pumps driven by steam engines were initially installed and they were later converted to oil fired engines for pumping the treated water. A 166 feet tall masonry was used to discharge the smoke.



An elevated steel tank of 104 feet in diameter was used as balancing tank to ensure adequate pressure in the water mains. A 48 inches diameter steel pumping main was laid for conveying the water to shaft and then for the city distribution system. Subsequently, the water distribution system was remodeled and extended to other areas of the city