Rs 60 crore fund to tide over looming summer water crisis in city
The state government plans to tap every bit of water in and around the city to see through what seems to be one of the most parched summers the capital has faced in recent times.
By : migrator
Update: 2017-03-09 20:59 GMT
Chennai
Virtually admitting that their conventional resources have turned bone dry, state local administration minister SP Velumani, who explained his Rs 60 crore plan to overcome the city’s water crisis in the ensuing summer, on Thursday said they would even tap water from even (unheard off lakes) like Theneri, Manimangalam Lake and Sriperumbudur Lake and a few others to meet the city’s water requirement this summer.
In an elaborate statement elucidating the state’s water plan for upcoming summer, Velumani said the government would also tap 22 unused quarries in the city’s surroundings. An estimate for Rs 11.8 crore fore laying pipelines and pumps to tap around 3tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) water from the quarries was being prepared, Velumani said, conceding that the joint storage of the four reservoirs (Chembarambakkam, Cholavaram, Puzhal and Poondi) was only 13% as on date.
Informing that they would pump 443mcft of dead storage from the Cholavaram, Chembarambakkam and Puzhal shortly, the minister said the government has also started studying the groundwater quality in the added areas to dig new borewells there.
DEEP SINK
- City’s water supply reduced from 830mld to 550mld.
- Works worth Rs 60 crore being undertaken to meet water requirement during summer.
- 85 mld to be tapped from Neyveli mines, Paravanaaru River and brorewells in Kadilam. 60 mld being tapped now.
- 25 mld supplied to Chennai city from 21 of the 30 borewells in Kadilam. Renovation of remaining borewells underway.
- Tiruvallur, Poondi and Tamaraipakkam are being hired by govt. 83.60 mld being tapped from 240 farm wells now.
- 100 additional water tankers to be hired. Total tanker trips to be increased to 6,500 from 4,200 (5,300 as on date). Currently, 520 water tankers are being operated in the city.
- 13 new water filling points have been set up to fill tanker lorries in the city.
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