City to get 50 MLD of water from Neyveli from first week of July

AP to release Krishna Water on Monday
C Shivakumar
Chennai:
As reservoirs are drying up, Chennai Metro Water is facing a Herculean
task to maintain the city’s water by judiciously managing the supply
and officials are working out contingency plan so that the Chennaites
don’t face any crisis for the next three months till the North-East
monsoon arrives in October.

As the city waits for Krishna water, which is expected to be released from
Kandaleru reservoir on Monday, Metro water is also eyeing to
get 50 mld of water from Neyveli starting from first week of July.

“Metro Water is planning to get additional supply of 50 MLD of water
from Neyveli. The work has nearly completed and currently, we are
fixing the mortar. Maximum by first week of July, we will have
additional 50 MLD of water,” a Metro Water official said.

Currently, Metro Water is supplying water to the city through the two
desalination plants besides 100 MLD from the ground water. In addition
to it water is also being supplied through the reservoirs, which does
have very little water available. Metro Water is also getting 80 MLD
of water from the well fields.

Interestingly, the reservoirs in the city only have about 1.5tmc feet
of water. “We have less water in Red Hills and Chembarambakkam.
Cholavaram has dried up while Poondi has little water,” a Metro water
source said.

“This has resulted us in reorganizing the supply to ensure Chennai
doesn’t go thirsty for the next three months. We also require the
support of residents. They have to use water judiciously,” said a
Metro Water official.

Interestingly, it is the ground water reserve, which is also helping
Metro water to maintain the supply at a time when the monsoon has
failed the city. The Metro water official hailed rainwater harvesting,
which has helped maintain enough supply. Currently, Metro water has
also worked out a strategy on erecting rain water harvesting
structures based on soil conditions.

The better gorund water situation has resulted in Metro water putting
into use 6,000 Mark II pumps and adding 1,000 more in far-flung areas
so that access to water is not denied. “We are also supplying drinking
water to 7,000 HDPE tanks. This is used only for drinking purposes,”
the official said.

Meanwhile, the tanker fleet of Metro Water has now been further
strengthened t0 3,750. Earlier, we were using 2,600 to 2,700 water
tankers to supply water to residents in Chennai. Now this has gone up
to 3,750 tankers per day.

With nearly, 1.5tmc feet of water in reservoir, the biggest challenge
before Metro water is to work out a careful collaborated strategy
besides managing water judiciously so that the city doesn’t go thirst
till the monsoon arrives, a Metro Water official said.