Wary of monsoon, Metro Water eyes water from Tiruvallur wells

According to a Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) official, the board has initiated the process to invite owners of agricultural wells in Tiruvallur to supply water if required. 

The tender in this regard would be floated in a few days. “Present storage in city lakes, Krishna river water and the purified water from the desalination plants will help meet the water needs of the city for a couple of months. Water from Veeranam lake also will help. However, Metrowater does not want to take any chances and the tenders will be floated as a back-up plan,” the official explained.

As of now, it has been decided to draw water from 10 agricultural wells in Tiruvallur district. The water to be drawn from those wells would be stored in a centralised storage facility from where it would be distributed to the city, the official added.

Presently, Metro Water has been supplying 650 million litres per day (mld) against the required 830 mld to stretch the storage until the onset of monsoon. Of the 650 mld, 200 mld of water is being supplied from Nemmeli and Minjur desalination plants (100 mld each), whereas Veeranam Lake supplies 180 mld. Poondi, Sholavaram, Chembarambakkam and Redhills lakes provide the remaining water for supply.

Meanwhile, Metro Water data shows that the four lakes around Chennai have a storage of 888 million cubic feet (mcft) on Thursday as against the combined capacity of 11,257 mcft. In 2017, on the same day, these lakes had a mere 374 mcft of water.

It may be noted that the Metro Water had drawn 40 lakh litres per day from Porur Lake for the first time to quench the parched city in 2017 when the State received below normal rainfall for second consecutive year. “This time, too, we are planning to draw water from Porur lake and abandoned quarries around Chennai if the situation worsens. Those quarries have a storage of at least 1 tmc ft,” the official said.

Metro Water is also set to finalise the bidders to construct a 150 mld desalination plant apart from mulling 400 mld plant in Perur off East Coast Road.