Complaints over erratic supply rise in Chennai

Chennai: With water level in reservoirs falling to dead storage, residents of some parts of the city are complaining of erratic supply of metro water.

After the suspension of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh last month, storage in the four city reservoirs had dwindled rapidly to 897 million cubic feet (mcft) as against the total capacity of 11,057  mcft. The Cholavaram reservoir dried up in May itself while Poondi, the third biggest reservoir with a storage capacity of 3,231 mcft, is holding merely 53 mcft.

The Chembarambakkam and Redhills reservoirs are having 359 mcft and 485 mcft against the total storage of 3,645 mcft and 3,300 mcft.

With the fall in reservoir storage, metro water has started drawing water from agricultural wells and borewells in Tiruvallur district to supplement city water supply. “We are drawing 80 to 100 million litres a day from  groundwater sources in Tiruvallur,” the official said. Besides, the city gets 200 MLD water from two desalination plants and 180 MLD from Veeranam to meet the requirement of 580 MLD to ensure alternate day’s supply.

However, residents of several parts of the city including Alwarpet, R.A Puram, Thiru Vi. Ka. Nagar and Perambur complained of inadequate supply of water.

“The quantity supplied has been reduced drastically over the past week. Till last month, we were getting daily supply of water. Now the supply is being done only on alternate days that too very less,” said S. Narayanan, a resident of First cross street, TTK road, Alwarpet. With the reduction in supply, they were forced to purchase 6,000 litres of tanker water from metro water at a cost of Rs 400 per trip.

Another resident of Third Cross Street, R.A. Puram said in the last two weeks,  water pressure was very low. A metro water official said over 550 tankers have been deployed to supply drinking water. “These tankers are making 4,800 to 4,900 trips a day including 1,700 to 1,800 trips on payment alone.”