Minister allays fears about water crisis in TN during summer, says Chennai will get 550 million litre daily till Dec

CHENNAI: Municipal administration minister S P Velumani on Wednesday allayed fears about a water crisis in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu in summer. He said the ongoing projects undertaken by the government would overcome water crisis.
“Even if there is a severe drought, the Chennai city will be supplied with 550 million litre of water a day until December,” the minister told the assembly.
Intervening in the debate, the minister said the state had augmented the drinking water schemes and supplied 7,395 million litre a day, besides ensuring piped supply to 99% of the rural population. In 2017, when the state faced its worst drought, the government managed to supply 5,891 million litre daily on an average, the minister said.
DMK leader M K Stalin sought to know the fate of the five desalination projects initiated by the AIADMK government in the past and water supply schemes costing Rs 25,000 crore. “I demand that the government come up with white paper on the schemes,” the DMK leader said.
Velumani said the proposed 150MLD desalination plant at Nemmeli would cost Rs 1,259 crore. It is partly funded by German funding agency KfW.
“Even as the ministry of environment and forests gave clearance for the project, the tenderers have moved the court,” he said. Tenders have been floated again for laying pipelines, as the ones received initially lacked technical qualification.
The state government had signed a deal with Japanese funding agency JICA for 400MLD Perur desalination plant on the East Coast Road. International tenders would be called in November this year, and orders would be issued by September 2020. Work would be completed March 2024, he said.
For this summer, the minister said, work was on to get 40MLD of water from Sikkarayapuram and Erumaiyur quarries.
The Veeranam lake in Cuddalore would be filled up once more (from where Chennai supply is augmented) and tenders were floated to get 10MLD from new borewells in Neyveli water basin.
Efforts are on to get 90MLD of water from Neyveli mines, the Paravanar river and the Gedilam river basin. That apart, 90MLD of water was guaranteed from 350 farm wells in Poondi, Thamaraipakkam areas, Velumani said. “There are more schemes in the pipeline, including extracting water from Retteri, Perumpakkam and Ayanambakkam,” he said.
In other municipal corporations, 2,782 projects have been taken up at a cost of Rs 103.79 crore to mitigate drinking water crisis in summer, which include new borewells, desilting of existing wells, tanker supply and renting out farm wells. Similarly, work is on at Rs 24.83 crore in 86 town panchayats. In the rural areas too, 30,951 projects are taken up at Rs 448.92 crore, the minister said.