Hope pitter-patters

Once, the fully self-sufficient Alandur municipality received first-rate Palar water. But these are things of the past for the locality, that is now reeling under the impact of water shortage. GOUTAM GHOSH surveys the scene.

AS YOU zip along Grand South Trunk Road, you may not notice the traffic subway next to The Trident hotel. It links GST Road to Nanganallur, Nehru Colony and other areas where civic amenities are pitifully poor.

If the potholes of Chennai irk you, the manholes on the newly- laid underground sewer lines can test your patience and skill. The manholes are like blisters on grafted skin - on 27 km of 132 km of roads which divide and sub-divide into 755 streets under Alandur Municipality. You hardly have space to squeeze past with your vehicle and you will certainly damage the chassis if you dare to drive over it.

Mr. R. S. Bharathi, the elected chairman of the municipality, is proud of his achievement - the underground sewer financed wholly by adjustable contributions from the people of his area. "It cost Rs. eight crores and is the first such instance of people-funded sewer system in the country," claimed Mr. Bharathi and Mr. Murugesan, assistant engineer, Alandur municipality.

The road surface is bad but what matters to all now is water which is maddeningly scarce. At 6-30 a.m., residents were out on the streets carrying colourful plastic pots (much lighter than stainless steel pots of the same capacity), hurrying to points where they hoped they would not be stopped from filling them. Mr. Ananthan, a resident, said, "My sump is absolutely dry. It is not that there is no water, but we don't get any. What little there is gets tapped long before it reaches our sumps at the tail-end."

Mr. Ananthan had already walked some 150 metres with two pots of water. Carrying two pots of water in one's hands, believe me, is difficult. He said he had to do many more to meet the needs of his family - for cooking, bathing, and washing. How would Mr. Ananthan give his best in office later in the day, you may wonder.

The Alandur municipality, with a population of 1,65,000 spread over 19.5 sq.kms and 26,000 property assessments, had reasons to be unique once. A fully self-sufficient municipality, it received first-rate Palar water not long ago. "Suddenly our wells have run dry, just as our sumps are," said a senior journalist. A peep into the journalist's well showed a bone-dry base littered with palm leaves.

When Dr. Sekhar Raghavan and I suggested that he could easily harvest rainwater, he wondered whether he would stand to benefit directly and immediately. He had the most common misconception about rainwater harvesting. Unfortunately unlike his neighbours on both sides, he did not sink a borewell, so he depended on the non-existent water supply from the municipality. Almost every morning, he brought four or five 20 litre jerry cans of water from his relative's farm in a village six kms away. Even if water was supplied in tankers, I could not help wondering if his wife and daughters would be able to shove and elbow others - a common sight wherever tankers supply water - to grab a share of water to meet their needs for the day.

Till March, the municipality supplied 70 lakh litres per day (lpd) but soon after, the figure dwindled to 65 lpd and has now crashed to 33 lpd, of which 23 lpd comes from the Palar river bed through the TWAD Board and 10 lpd from Metrowater.

This is not enough to fill more than a part of the five overhead tanks. Unless the tank is full, the pressure will not be enough to force the fluid through the entire network. And whenever the tanks are partially full, the adjoining colonies tap the water through the so-called public fountains. So the water does not reach the tail-end. The residents strongly prefer Palar water even though the Palar river has run dry. But the residents prefer the subsurface water (the saturated zone) under the river bed to Metrowater's chlorine-loaded supply.

A group of residents said that the local hooligans, under the banner of the two major po political parties in the State, directed the water tankers to areas of their choice, which led to a plenty in some pockets and absolutely nothing in others.

A number of residents alleged that rules had been violated in providing domestic connection to some residents as well. Instead of tapping from the top of the main line, the connection was given from the bottom. So when most houses do not get water, the fluid in the pipeline trickles down into the sumps of a few.

An additional menace is the use of electric pumps connected with flexible hose to tap the domestic pipeline. Given the ingenious ways people use motors to illegally suck water meant for all, there is little that can be done except a house-to-house search, on-the-spot fines and disconnection for a year. "We have discovered 48 cases of illegal tapping since last year, including one case this year. In each case, we have disconnected the line and imposed a fine of Rs.5,000," said Mr. Bharathi.

In Macmillan Colony, Ullagaram, a crowd was seen in mid-day at the corner of a street. There was a pit, roughly 4 sq.m. by 2m, with cement walls and a few steps, and a water outlet at a depth of about 1.7m. The water was gushing out with incredible force - for an area where thousands of sumps are dry. The group of women refused to answer any question and raised a hue and cry when they were photographed. The local residents association office bearers later said that the public fountain was tapped from the Alandur municipality pipeline and it was approved by some official who was no longer in the area.

Closing down the public fountain will instantly hit many families dependent on this assured supply. But at whose expense? Obviously the residents of Alandur municipality who are paying for water that they do not get. The lucky residents of Ullagaram are willing to pay for the water but that is beside the point.

The public fountain has obviously been tapped from below the main line - a violation of law. From what the residents said, it seemed that Mr. Bharathi's involvement in improving the civic amenities rises far above his affinity to the present opposition party in the State. But he has his hands full. What he achieves depends on how sincere a helping hand he gets from the State Government, and whether he succeeds in minimising corruption among officials he depends on.

As I have mentioned often, the water scarcity can be solved if we depended less on third parties for our needs. Rainwater harvesting offers the only cost-effective long-term solution. It was interesting to find viable percolation pits and pipes to tap the roof top run-off in the house of the municipality chairman. A proof that the man practises what he preaches. As far as rainwater harvesting is concerned.

* * *

'Switch off power'

"TO PREVENT illegal tapping using electric motors, switch off the power supply between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. so that none can use motors when the water is supplied through the pipelines," said a councillor's spouse, who preferred anonymity.

Mr. R. S. Bharathi, the municipal chairman, raised a valid point the next day, "Nanganallur is an area where most of the couples are employed. So if power were to be cut off when children were getting ready to go to school, when the coconut had to be ground for chutney and the masala pasted for cooking, there would be chaos. And this deliberate power cut cannot be imposed unless the Government passes an ordinance. Or else, the move can easily be vacated in a court of law."

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Jewellery removed from suitcase