New technology to prevent sewage outflows in street

Chennai:

Chennai Metro Water is now adopting technology to prevent sewage outflows in the street.

Metro Water officials said that the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Minister K P Munusamy has asked Metro Water officials to implement a Rs 3.60 crore project so that sewage outflows are minimized in the city.

The officials said as per the project Metro Water will install ultrasonic level detectors in sewage-collection wells to automatically pump sewage. Sources said the technology will be implemented in 218 pumping stations across the city and would bring in efficiency and better monitoring of sewage pumping stations.

The official said that till now the pumping stations were operated manually and now with the technology, the whole process will be controlled automatically.

A sewage pumping station is an integral part of a sewage network. Its primary role is to collect wastewater and then pump it from one location to another. A level detector determines the height of wastewater in the well and sends a signal to a controlling system. The controlling system starts and stops large pumps, which empty the well and transfer the wastewater on its journey towards a sewage treatment plant. The whole procedure would be done without human intervention. This will prevent sewage overflow on the streets. The project will be taken up at a cost of Rs 3.60 crore, the official said.

Meanwhile, Metro Water is also going to introduce automated inline water quality monitoring system to constantly monitor the quality of water supplied to residents.

Officials told Express that the Rs 1.80 crore project would be implemented with setting up monitoring devices at 50 spots across the city.

Currently, the water samples are collected manually every day from water distribution stations to monitor its quality. Officials said the devices would be attached to pipelines and will test water quality during the hourly flow of water. The sensors in the device will transmit the data to a central control room to be set up in the head office. The turbidity, residual chlorine and PH levels would be monitored.