The city’s households spend a minimum of 3% of their monthly income towards water, particularly during drought conditions, to cope with the shortfall in piped water supply.

With the growing gap between demand and water availability, it is essential to have a water budget and develop a sustainable drainage system during urban planning, experts stressed here recently.

At a media workshop on ‘Floods, cyclone and drought: The puzzle of Chennai’s water and climate’, organised by Care Earth Trust, K.S. Kavi Kumar of Madras School of Economics said many households with piped water connection spend Rs. 553 per month towards water needs. Those without piped water supply spend Rs. 658 per month on the same.

People without municipal water supply spend nearly 6.2% of their monthly income towards sourcing water from the private sector. Citing various studies, he said besides implementing water metering system, the government sector must change the pricing strategy.

At present, the cost of water supply is nearly Rs. 13-15 per kilo litre. Economic incentives may be provided to encourage reduction in water use.

The need to increase the reservoirs’ capacity and boost groundwater recharge was also underlined during the workshop. Pointing out that the water demand of the expanding city is projected to increase to 2003 million litres by 2021, Balaji Narasimhan, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, said it is imperative to restore waterbodies and demarcate their boundaries to store flood water. During land-use planning, it is essential to identify land to store excess runoff along with allocation of OSR land, he added.

Speakers also highlighted the recent extreme weather events due to climate change and emphasised the importance of restoration of wetlands as part of disaster management. While Uma Ramachandran of IFMR-LEAD spoke on how innovative methods were used in various sectors to help residents during December 2015 floods, Avantika Bhaskar of Care Earth Trust, spoke on the role of wetlands in storing floodwater and ensuring better groundwater quality.

Workshop on city’s water supply situation underlines the need to increase the reservoir capacity

As part of the Coimbatore Vizha events, nature enthusiasts and concerned citizens cleaned the Thadagam Road on Sunday. According to Manoj Krishnakumar, one of the organisers, more than 1,000 people participated in the cleanliness drive that started at Gandhi Park and ended at Anaikatti.

The volunteers picked up plastic and other waste between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. and the total waste collected was over 30 tonnes.

The organisers had divided the 30-km stretch of the road into 50 segments for volunteers to work. The volunteers assembled at the Government College of Technology on Thadagam Road and from there the organisers took them to the segments concerned.

A few education institutions had lent their buses to support the cause. A few volunteers reached the segments assigned to them in their vehicles.

They then went about collecting the waste. Coimbatore Corporation had also supported the cause by sending its conservancy workers and deploying vehicles to transport the waste.

The organisers had also engaged an earth mover to clear waste in those pockets that was difficult for people to work.

Mr. Krishnakumar said that the volunteers worked hard in the five hours to collect over 30 tonnes waste under the programme called Tsuname Sweep. The Coimbatore Chapter of Young Indians, Builders Association of India, CREDAI and a few Round Table organisations and others had supported the cause.