C Shivakumar
Chennai:
Chennai’s water bodies are slowly shrinking, and experts warn that if officials turn a blind eye, the day is not far off when the city faces an acute water crisis and economic development comes to a standstill.
As per figures available with Express the city has 29 major water bodies with initially a total area of 98,78,277 square metres. They have been reduced to 50,42,082 square metres, almost half, and storage capacity reduced to 20 per cent due to encroachment.
The blame for declining water assets rests solely on policy makers who ignored water bodies and focused on industrialisation and development as they filled up eris and developed them as housing schemes, says T K Ramkumar, principal advisor of Exnora. He says even major reservoirs like Cholavaram, Chembarambakam and Poondi have been encroached on and there is an urgent need to clear the encroachment. Former Public Works Department engineer V Devarajan says that the government should clamp down on construction along the banks of water bodies or lakes.
Experts feel the water crisis in the city is totally man made. “If we had preserved our water bodies, the city would never have faced a water crisis. Even now a solid waste management project is being planned in Kuthambakkam, which will pose a major threat to Chembarambakkam lake,” Devarajan says.
Former Metro Water engineer C R Rajan, who started his own non-governmental organisation Nature Movement, feels there is an urgent need for the city to focus on rainwater harvesting techniques rather than on storm water drains along the seashore in Besant Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur and other areas so that the TDS levels of ground water in these areas improves. He also calls for building check dams to store rainwater in the city.
The preservation of water bodies requires planning. But the plans are totally flawed and the land use plan in the Master Plan is often tinkered with by officials. Planners told Express that the second master Plan is for 2026 but officials are already tinkering with the land use plan now. This raises the question of whether the Second Master Plan is flawed,” said a planner.
Self-inflicted water woes are global and this has alarmed 500 leading water scientists who in Bonn issued a declaration warning that in a span of one or two generations, the majority of the nine billion people on earth will be living under the handicap of severe pressure on fresh water, an absolutely essential natural resource for which there is no substitute.
“At a time of impending water challenges it remains a struggle to secure the basic environmental and social observations needed to obtain an accurate picture of the state of the resource. We need to know about the availability, condition and use of water as part of a global system through sustained environmental surveillance. History teaches us that failure to obtain this basic information will be costly and dangerous,” the scientists warned during a global conference, Water in the Anthropocene, organised by the Global Water System Project.
The government is aware of the dwindling number of water bodies and has planned their restoration. Pallikarani, Porur and Perungudi lakes are expected to be restored in the first phase. It is also believed the chain of lakes in the stretch from Pallavaram to Madipakam may be immediately considered for conservation as they are encroachment-free and could be a good source for water.
The restoration work is likely to be carried out by evolving a lake conservation project with a supporting organisation structure defining the role of government departments, agencies, non-governmental organisations and the community.
Chennai:
Chennai’s water bodies are slowly shrinking, and experts warn that if officials turn a blind eye, the day is not far off when the city faces an acute water crisis and economic development comes to a standstill.
As per figures available with Express the city has 29 major water bodies with initially a total area of 98,78,277 square metres. They have been reduced to 50,42,082 square metres, almost half, and storage capacity reduced to 20 per cent due to encroachment.
The blame for declining water assets rests solely on policy makers who ignored water bodies and focused on industrialisation and development as they filled up eris and developed them as housing schemes, says T K Ramkumar, principal advisor of Exnora. He says even major reservoirs like Cholavaram, Chembarambakam and Poondi have been encroached on and there is an urgent need to clear the encroachment. Former Public Works Department engineer V Devarajan says that the government should clamp down on construction along the banks of water bodies or lakes.
Experts feel the water crisis in the city is totally man made. “If we had preserved our water bodies, the city would never have faced a water crisis. Even now a solid waste management project is being planned in Kuthambakkam, which will pose a major threat to Chembarambakkam lake,” Devarajan says.
Former Metro Water engineer C R Rajan, who started his own non-governmental organisation Nature Movement, feels there is an urgent need for the city to focus on rainwater harvesting techniques rather than on storm water drains along the seashore in Besant Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur and other areas so that the TDS levels of ground water in these areas improves. He also calls for building check dams to store rainwater in the city.
The preservation of water bodies requires planning. But the plans are totally flawed and the land use plan in the Master Plan is often tinkered with by officials. Planners told Express that the second master Plan is for 2026 but officials are already tinkering with the land use plan now. This raises the question of whether the Second Master Plan is flawed,” said a planner.
Self-inflicted water woes are global and this has alarmed 500 leading water scientists who in Bonn issued a declaration warning that in a span of one or two generations, the majority of the nine billion people on earth will be living under the handicap of severe pressure on fresh water, an absolutely essential natural resource for which there is no substitute.
“At a time of impending water challenges it remains a struggle to secure the basic environmental and social observations needed to obtain an accurate picture of the state of the resource. We need to know about the availability, condition and use of water as part of a global system through sustained environmental surveillance. History teaches us that failure to obtain this basic information will be costly and dangerous,” the scientists warned during a global conference, Water in the Anthropocene, organised by the Global Water System Project.
The government is aware of the dwindling number of water bodies and has planned their restoration. Pallikarani, Porur and Perungudi lakes are expected to be restored in the first phase. It is also believed the chain of lakes in the stretch from Pallavaram to Madipakam may be immediately considered for conservation as they are encroachment-free and could be a good source for water.
The restoration work is likely to be carried out by evolving a lake conservation project with a supporting organisation structure defining the role of government departments, agencies, non-governmental organisations and the community.
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