‘Plans afoot to step up city water supply to meet 25 yrs’ demand’

“The present water requirement of Chennai is 1,150 million litres a day (MLD), but the city is getting only 830 to 840 MLD. If the ongoing desalination projects are completed the problem of water shortage will be addressed. Chief Minister MK Stalin had given instructions to formulate schemes to satisfy the water needs of the city for the next 25 years,” said Nehru, in the Assembly.

The issue of water problem in Chennai was raised by former Minister for Municipal Administration SP Velumani who listed out the various desalination plants setup by the previous AIADMK government and said that through the projects 870 MLD of water was supplied to GCC. He also said that in 2020-21, under the Jal Jeevan Mission 19.74 lakh water connections were provided at the cost of Rs 2,264 crore and under various other schemes 20.26 lakh water connections were provided at the cost of Rs 2,150 crore.

Nehru replied that the state government is preparing a detailed report on implementation of individual pipelines to urban areas and once the Jal Jeevan Mission is announced for urban areas, the state will undertake steps to provide water connections through individual pipelines.

Velumani, in his address, said that under Prime Minister Housing Scheme- Rural, the previous AIADMK government allotted Rs 1,805 crore to construct houses in 2016-17, but in this budget it has been mentioned that construction of no new houses will be undertaken and it was announced that the state will continue construction of 2.14 lakh houses.

Minister for Rural Development KR Periakaruppan replied that out of 8.17 lakh total houses announced, the previous government had completed only 3.3 lakh houses and so the construction of remaining houses will be undertaken.

Velumani further said, the government did not allot any fund for the Amma canteens in this budget and reduced grant for civic bodies.