Deccan Chronicle 18.01.2011
Water crisis unlikely in Greater Chennai
January 18th, 2011an. 17: The city’s perennial water shortage may end in a few years thanks to the 200 mld desalination plant proposed recently besides a 100 mld plant under operation in Minjur and another 100 mld plant under construction in Nemmeli.
The Chennai metropolitan water supply and sewerage board has projected that its overall water requirement would shoot up to 2,248 mld once the existing 174 sqkm city corporation is expanded to 426 sq km “Greater Chennai”.
About nine municipalities, eight town panchayats and 25 village panchayats would be brought fully under CMWSSB after the expansion. The 12 tmcft annual Krishna water supply (the city has not received more than 7.5tmcft from Kandaleru even once) plus Minjur and Nemmeli desalination plants and surface water storage in Poondi, Puzhal, Cholavaram and Chembarambakkam reservoirs would jointly take the capacity to 1,900 mld.
The remaining could be met by using the proposed 200 mld plant near the state capital, said a source. Senior CMWSSB officials told Deccan Chronicle that new water sources would be identified and utilised in a phased manner. “The supplying capacity of CMWSSB would literally be doubled if this happens,” said an official.
Officials added that apart from the proposed 200 mld desalination plant, more projects ought to be taken up in future to meet the steady rise in water demand or the state would face a major water crisis. CMWSSB currently supplies 670 mld to 55 lakh people.
In 1978, it was supplying 240 mld to 30 lakh Chennaites.
