The Hindu Business Line : Chennai may have to turn to sea for water

M.K. Dhandapani is a busy man. He has to ensure that all the borewell pumps in the farm he works are in running condition. The farm in Tirumazhisai, 30 km west of Chennai, is among the many on the outskirts that the Government and the private sector have been tapping for water to supply to the parched city.

Dhandapani says that the water table has gone down considerably in the last month or two. Till mid-December it took just four minutes to fill up a 12,000-litre tanker, but now it takes almost 45 minutes. This means fewer trips. And, for the residents of Chennai, more anxiety as they wait for water.

As it is, the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) and private water lorry operators have been forced to go ever farther to fetch water. Tanker rates have gone up as borewell owners have raised the charges; 12,000 litres of water now costs a consumer about Rs 900, according to tanker operators.

With the failure of successive monsoons, the lakes feeding Chennai have gone dry. The combined storage of the four reservoirs - Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam - is just 213 million cubic feet (mcft) when last year at the same time the lakes had 14 times that capacity. Their combined full capacity is 11,057 mcft.

Metrowater has suspended piped supply and provides water through tankers. More borewells are being sunk and to greater depths as the city craves for water. Household budgets have gone awry as a large number of apartment buildings buy water in tankers, mostly from the private sector, and almost on a daily basis.

The number of private tanker operators has increased but they too find it difficult to supply water as frequently as they did a couple of months ago, as they have to go to greater distances to get the water. Even they are not sure how long the groundwater supply will last.

The Government has either taken up various schemes or is formulating new ones to ensure that Chennai is supplied with water. This task becomes especially crucial if the city is to be in the reckoning with other State capitals for attracting investments. The State Government's efforts include bringing about 180 million litres a day from Veeranam lake, about 230 km south of Chennai. The Telugu Ganga scheme - to transport water from the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh to Chennai - has been inaugurated, but is yet to be fully tapped due to various reasons.

Unfortunately, point out official sources, Chennai is entirely dependent on external sources for water - be it the North-East monsoon, the Telugu Ganga scheme or the Veeranam project.

For a city of this size and importance, the sources say, there is a need to find a more lasting solution. One such could be putting up a large plant or a couple of smaller ones to make sea water potable. The technology is available, though cost may be an issue. Metrowater even invited bids to set up a desalination plant, which would have cost about Rs 1,500 crore for a 300 million litres a day capacity. But, it is stuck in legal wrangles.

Official sources point out that the cost of a desalination plant would have to be recovered from consumers. This means that water rates, at present a flat Rs 50 for a half year, will have to be raised. For this, meters will have to be installed for all consumers. The flip side is that meters will be effective only when there is continuous supply in the pipes.

Water in the borewells on the city's outskirts will not last beyond a month. Dhandapani looks up at the cloudy sky on a Saturday afternoon and says "rain is the only solution."