Parks use recycled water to stay green in summer

A Chennai Corporation higher official said that the civic body is not using the drinking water supplied by the Metrowater to water the parks. “We have collection wells in two places near Marina and RBI subway to draw water for parks. Water from Nesapakkam sewage treatment plant and groundwater is also being used,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the civic body had built 10 sewage treatment plants at 10 parks and works are ongoing for four sewage treatment plants in four parks. Presently, the Chennai Corporation is maintaining as many as 637 parks.

“I often go to Gill Nagar Park in Choolaimedu. Even though we do not get drinking water daily, the park is well maintained,” M Vishnu, a resident said.

According to Jayashree Venkatesan of Care Earth Trust, as much as 1,200 litres of water is required to water the park spread over one hectare on alternate days.“Watering should be done before sunrise and also in evenings. To water one-hectare park every day, we need 800 litres of water. Amount of water needed would be higher when the watering is done on alternate days,” she said.

Meanwhile, water requirement would come down to 500 litres when watering is done using sprinklers. Presently, four lakes – Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam lakes that supply drinking water to the city have reached dead storage and have a total storage of 662 mcft against the combined total capacity of 11,257 mcft.