City short of 304mld water; Govt to fill in the gap within two years

Chennai:

Chennai is short of 304 mld of water as it could supply only 740 mld of water against the demand of 1,044 mld following the addition of new areas in the Chennai Metropolitan Area and the government is launching new schemes to fill the gap within two years, according to Metro Water superintending engineer A L Radhakrishnan.

Speaking at a session on Integrated Water and waste-water management at the three-day international conference Municipalika Making Cities Work on Tuesday, he said the gap could be set right within two years.

 “The schemes include completion of 100 MLD desalination plant by the year end in Nemelichery, creation of new reservoirs besides establishment of another 200 MLD desalination plant near Nemilichery during 2012-2014,” Radhakrishnan told Express.

He also said work is also going on in laying of parallel pipeline to draw water from Chembarambakkam lake besides setting up a treatment plant at Poonamallee bye-pass. “More than Rs 40 crore has been allocated to lay a pipeline fom Chembarambakam to Saveetha Dental College to fill up the mismatch,” he said.

He said the Metro Water is also planning to set up two water treatment facilities to fill the gaps in supplying water to industries. “Currently, there is a need for 1,190 mld of water for industries and the supply is only 800 mld of water. The gap is 362.70 mld and th government is planning to set up two water treatment plants to fill the demand,” Radhakrishnan said.

“The 1,300 MLD water treatment plant will come up at Chembarambakkam while the 100 MLD water treatment plant will come up at Puzhal,” he added.

                        Demand     Supply     Gap

Core                 762mld       660mld   102mld

Added areas     282mld       80mld      202mld

Total                 1044mld     740mld    304mld