Chennai Metro Water is now adopting qa new technology to prevent
sewage outflow onto the street.   Metro Water officials said that
Municipal Administration and Water Supply Minister K P Munusamy had
asked them to implement a `3.60-crore project so that sewage outflow is
minimised in the city.

Accordingly,  Metro Water would install
ultrasonic level detectors in sewage collection wells to automatically
pump sewage. Sources said the technology would be implemented in 218
pumping stations across the city and would bring in efficiency and
better monitoring of sewage pumping stations. A pumping station is an
integral part of a sewage network. Its primary role is to collect waste
water and pump it from one location to another.

The official said
that so far the pumping stations had been operated manually but now,
with the technology, the whole process would be automatically
controlled. A level detector will determine the height of waste water in
the well and send a signal to a controlling system. The controlling
system will start and stop large pumps, which empty the well and
transfer the waste water on its journey towards a sewage treatment
plant.

The whole procedure will be completed without human
intervention, and will prevent sewage overflow on the streets. The
project will be taken up at a cost of Rs 3.60 crore, the official said.

Metro
Water is also going to introduce automated an inline water quality
monitoring system to constantly monitor the quality of water supplied to
residents.

Officials told City Express that the `1.80-crore
project would be implemented with the setting up of monitoring devices
at 50 spots across the city.

Currently, water samples are
collected manually every day from water distribution stations to monitor
quality. Officials said the devices would be attached to pipelines and
would test water quality during the hourly flow of water. The sensors in
the device will transmit the data to a central control room to be set
up in the head office. Turbidity, residual chlorine and PH levels will
be monitored.