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

In addition, drinking water projects estimated at ₹703 crore are being taken up in rural areas and the government is spending ₹98.57 crore on refurbishing 1,898 water resource 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, covering 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, said the Minister in the Assembly on Wednesday, responding to a calling attention motion on the drinking water shortage in the State.

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, the flow in the Krishna Water Project has dropped and reservoir storage is low. But with the available resources, including desalination projects, supply of about 550 million litres is being sustained, he said.

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

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