The Hindu : Water crisis still looms large

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 16, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Water crisis still looms large

By T.Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI DEC. 15. Even as Chennai is recovering from a downpour it received some weeks ago, the city is heading for a water crisis, experts fear.

The rain received till now was not sufficient to fill the reservoirs. As on date, the storage is a little more than one-third of the total capacity.

This morning, the combined storage of Red Hills, Cholavaram and the Satyamurthi Sagar in Poondi stood at 3.161 tmcft. Chembarampakkam, used for supplementing the city supply, had a storage of 0.854 tmcft. At present, Metrowater is providing around 300 million litres a day (MLD), apart from supplying around seven MLD to the adjoining urban local bodies. Unlike the previous year, Chennai does not have the support of Krishna water, as the storage positions in Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs of Andhra Pradesh too are poor.

Early this year, the city received about 3 tmcft of Krishna water. This apart it had 3.5 tmcft available in the three reservoirs. But this time, Andhra Pradesh itself approached Karnataka to meet its drinking water requirements.However, one comforting factor is that repair works on the Kandaleru-Poondi canal are being carried out, thanks to the Sai Trust coming forward to bear the entire cost. Though the fruits of the works may not be of immediate consequence, a higher quantum will be realised in future. A joint team of senior officials of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh is slated to visit the dam sites in the middle of this week.

As for Chennai, to maintain the current supply level for the next 9-10 months, a minimum of seven tmcft is needed.

The Meteorological department has not declared that the northeast monsoon is over, but the chances of heavy rain in and around the city in the next few weeks are considered remote, unless and otherwise a cyclonic system over the Bay of Bengal develops.

"Again, going by the past, only areas south of Nagapattinam have a greater probability of experiencing such a system in late December than north Tamil Nadu," points out S.K.Subramanian, Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre. There is no certainty that any such cyclonic system will be beneficial to the city, in terms of copious inflows to the reservoirs.

Hope against hope

However, water managers are hoping that one or two unprecedented heavy spells may change the situation totally. They point out that on December 20 and 25 last year, the city reservoirs' storage went up by nearly one tmcft, thanks to a trough of low pressure. The total rainfall in Chennai was 20 cm. In respect of the city reservoirs, the total average rainfall in December 2001 was 26 cm.

But, even at that time, the Meteorological office called it a phenomenon. A similar occurrence this year is a fond wish. Reacting to reports that Karnataka has positively responded to Andhra Pradesh's request for release of water from the Alamatti dam, some experts say that as Karnataka's share in the total quantity of Krishna water to Chennai accounts for five tmcft, the Tamil Nadu Government should take up with the neighbouring States to get the quantum for the city.

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