Chennai: Pipeline leak results in huge waste of water

Chennai: Leakage in water pipelines across the city is alarming as it wastes thousands of litres of nature's elixir every day. The water pipelines that supply water to Triplicane, Chintadripet, Royapettah, Manali, Washermanpet and Omandurar Government Estate are damaged in many places. Residents complain that the water wastage due to this is unacceptable when the city is suffering from an acute water crisis.

Three days have passed since the water pipeline near Iyya Mudali Street at Chintadripet burst open, which led to a loss of wastage of thousands of litres of water, but the authorities have not attended to the problem yet. The old water pipeline incurred damages at many spots, from where the water gushes out for hours. The residents are collecting the water for their daily use.

“We had to stay without water for two-three days as we will not receive water from the pipeline. We do not want the water to get wasted and are collecting it to use it in the times of need,” said V. Jawahar, a resident of Chintadripet.  Damage to the water pipelines in several places has been reported to Chennai Metro water officials, but the problem has not been provided with a permanent solution. “We have limited water supply for two hours a day with a slow flow, whereas we see the water being wasted on roads due to leaking water pipeline,” says D.Radha, Triplicane resident.

Chennai Metro water officials admit that these incidents occur on a daily basis. Measures are taken to repair the pipeline every time such incidents take place, but replacement of old pipeline seems to be the need of the hour, say residents.

When contacted, Metro water officials said that the pipelines that extend 6,000 km cannot be completely replaced, as it requires a large sum of money. “We are using an allocation of '115 crores to replace the water pipeline for 300 km, which will be possibly completed by December," he added.