Tamil Nadu is spending ₹976.76 crore in its cities and towns to tackle the severest water shortage in over 140 years, said the Minister for Municipal Administration, SP Velumani.

In addition, in rural areas drinking water projects estimated at Rs 703 crore are being taken up; the government is spending ₹ 98.57 crore on refurbishing 1,898 water resources structures; 1,337 new bore wells and drought relief work are being taken up at a cost of ₹ 65.35 crore; 15 million litres of water is being distributed daily through water tankers in cities and towns; and 1,565 million litres of water is being supplied through 553 integrated water supply projects benefiting 4.21 crore people.

These are among the steps being taken by the government to tackle the water shortage following the failure of the North East monsoons which has been the worst in over 140 years, said the Minister in the Assembly today responding to a calling attention motion on the drinking water shortage in Tamil Nadu.

Drinking water projects have been declared a priority under various categories of funding, he said.

Normally over 830 million litres of water is supplied to Chennai city daily. However, due to the water shortage the inflow in the Krishna Water Project has dropped and reservoir storage is low. But with the available resources including desalination projects about 550 million litres of drinking water supply is being sustained, he said.

Anticipating the possibility of reservoirs drying up in May during peak summer, projects worth about ₹100 crore are being taken up on a war footing.

On World Water Day today, the Legislators should work to enhance public awareness on conserving water, he suggested.

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