Failure of a valve resulted in wastage of drinking water on Mudichur Road, near Tambaram, on Saturday afternoon.
The wastage of the water from Palar River, whose levels have been depleting at an alarming level, resulted in flooding of streets.
Around 1 p.m. on Saturday, water started gushing out of the open pipe fixed to the underground valve and main distribution water pipeline on Mudichur Road. The main distribution pipelines transport Palar drinking water to Tambaram municipality. The water gushing out of the pipelines flooded stormwater drains and roadside sewers and entered residential localities including Madhanapuram and neighbouring pockets.
“Our streets are not so flooded even during the monsoon,” said sisters Sakthi and Priya, who, along with their friends, were frolicking in the water.
The drinking water flushed the sludge out of sewers, cleaning them temporarily.
Officials said ground-level service reservoirs (sumps) were under construction on Tiruneermalai Road and Mudichur Road to increase the capacity for storage of Palar water meant for supply to residents. They were carrying out tests on Saturday to ascertain if water from the main distribution lines reached the sumps. However, failure of a valve on the distribution network had caused the reverse flow and water begun to flow out of the pipe at Madhanapuram. The wastage was arrested in the evening, the officials said.
Residents said a few lakh litres of water had been wasted.
Against its actual drinking water requirements of nearly 300 lakh litres a day, the municipality gets a far less quantity. Under such circumstances, wastage of precious drinking water is the last thing anybody would want, said Vinayagam, a resident.
