Focus on desalination plants

By T.Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, SEPT. 28. Chennai expects a better monsoon this year than in the last two years, buoyed by the recent wet spell and marginal inflows into reservoirs.

However, keeping their fingers crossed, the water managers are preparing for any eventuality. More agricultural wells on the outskirts are being tapped for city supply and Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination plants are under construction. At present, Metrowater draws about 80 million litres a day (mld) of water from agricultural wells.

Besides, the water agency gets 30 mld from well fields and transports 8.5 mld from Neyveli, Mettur and Erode. About 2.5 mld of ``Krishna Water'' continues to be drawn from the Kandaleru- Poondi canal at Kirugambakkam.

For the medium-term, work on two desalination plants in slum colonies is nearing completion, and Metrowater authorities are proposing to instal a couple of more units.

The two plants, with a capacity of one lakh litres each, are coming up at Ayodhyakuppam, near Ice House, and at Kasimedukuppam, a fishermen's colony in north Chennai. Their total cost is estimated to be about Rs. 1 crore.

``Our aim is to instal as many plants as possible. But, before proceeding further, we want to study the operation of these two plants, which we hope to commission in about 10 days'', authorities say, adding the additional units are proposed at Velachery and Okkiyam Thoraipakkam.

As a long-term measure to tackle drought, the Government has proposed to take up the Rs.493-crore Chennai Water Supply Augmentation Project (CWSAP)-II.

The Chief Minister, Mr. O. Panneerselvam, in his first interface with senior water managers early this week, asked that work on the projects be expedited.

CWSAP-II essentially envisages harnessing of flood flows for domestic consumption. This will be achieved by constructing checkdams, mini-reservoirs and percolation tanks across the Kosasthalaiyar, the Cooum, the Adyar and the Palar rivers. The project includes construction of reservoirs at Tirukkandalam, Zamin Korattur, Thiruneermalai and Pallikaranai and an increase in the storage capacity of the Red Hills, Madhavaram lake/Rettai Eri, Korattur and Ambattur lakes.

The Public Works Department has already begun raising the bund of the Madhavaram lake. Also, it is to take up work on the Korattur and Ambattur lakes shortly. While the PWD is keen on completing the work on the Madhavaram lake by mid-October, it wants to cover the other two in a month.

The Chief Minister also reviewed the status of the New Veeranam Project, now called Chennai Water Supply Augmentation Project-I. ``We are now in the process of firming up with funding agencies to mop up money. Also, we have to fine-tune the tender documents prepared five years ago to suit the present requirements. We hope to complete this exercise in two-three weeks and invite tenders by mid-October'', the sources said.Thanks to the latest rain spell, the Red Hills tank, which was on the verge of totally drying up, has been receiving moderate flows. On Friday morning, it recorded an inflow of 72 cusecs and had a storage of 174 mcft.

The rainfall recorded this morning in Poondi was 3 cm, in Chembarampakkam, Zamin Korattur and Tamaraipakkam was 2 cm and in Sholavaram and Red Hills one cm.

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