Chennai: There has been a consistent talk for almost a large part of the past month of overflowing rivers and dams, copious rains and menacing floods reported from various parts of the state, but Chennai has a different story as its water managers are keeping their fingers crossed over the water crisis the city is facing.
With rains eluding Chennai and suburbs, and surface water drying up from lakes, officials from the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board(CMWSSB), who all along had been looking up at the sky for the bounty of rains, are now planning to draw available ground water besides tapping other possible resources to rise tthe growing demand.
This comes in the wake of complaints made by residents that piped water had largely turned erratic, forcing them to buy water from tankers. Worse still, water storage has steadily intensified in rain-fed lakes like Chembarambakkam and Cholavaram on which the city banks for its needs. The total storage in the four lakes supplying water to the city stands at 1,259 million cubic feet (mcft) against their total capacity of 11,257 mcft. Water from Veeranam lake is the only continuous water source from where the CMWSSB is currently getting its supply.
“The current water level will be enough to meet the city’s needs for the next month. We are closely monitoring the storage in the lakes and are open to all options. We plan of drawing ground water only in the case of an acute scarcity like last year,” said an official, seeking anonymity.
The erratic metro water supply reported in most parts of the city has caused resentment among the public. “Though metro water board had properly maintained its supply so far, it has slowly turned very erratic in the recent past. Now, we need to book online and wait for a metro water tanker with a ready payment,” said A Sekaran, a resident of Aminjikarai. The crisis all the more marked in areas where households do not have metro water connections, but fully rely on metro water tankers, say residents.
When contacted, a senior official of the CMWSSB said, “There is no hurry to go for any other water source as of now, since we are supplying water without interruption. We will study the situation for the next one month, after which we may choose to tap water from borewells.”
