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People looking to move house in Chennai no longer ask if that particular area has good water supply or at least groundwater. They gingerly walk into the houses and make sure there is enough space to line up the pots/cans of water they will have to buy for everyday use!

That is the latest situation on the water front in the metropolis that has been cheated of good rains this Monsoon.

After giving up all hopes of the skies opening up, people are now looking to the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board (Metrowater) to see how it is going to come to the rescue of the people this summer.

Metrowtaer managing director V Thangavelu is not able to help with any good news as he says the present storage in Red Hills reservoir (that is a major supplier of potable water) will hold only till the end of December. But summer doesn’t begin before March! What happens then?

He said the water was now being supplied to Chennai city on alternate days. A total of 225 million litres of water is supplied on such days and 25 million litres on non-supply days.

“We have totally 292 mc ft of water at present in the lakes.” The use of well fields will be increased in January from the present 125 million litres. The well fields are spread around the city at places such as Poondi, Tamaraipakkam, Panjetty, Palar, Mamandur and Poonamalle.

Metrowater employs 2,000 tankers to supply water in 6,500 trips for the city, the managing director pointed out.

In spite of all this, it is not able to match World Health Organisation standards, which prescribes 140 litres of water per day, per person: A Chennaivasi gets about 40 litres of water per day.

Thangavelu pointed out various reasons for that: lack of rainfall, Krishna water not being let out. “After July 15 last year, the city has not received any water from the Krishna water scheme.”

Asked about the Sathya Sai Baba Trust’s Rs 200 crore project between Kandaleru and Poondi, he said the project was done only for 91 km in the 152 km stretch. Because of this, the reservoir will receive only 60 per cent of water that is released at Kandaleru.

About the Veeranam project, he said 70 per cent of the work was completed and would become operational by June 2004 and supply 180 million litres of water to Chennai. Also 15 million litres will be supplied from Kollavai lake at Chengalpattu.

To augment supply to the city, the Government of Tamil Nadu had passed an ordinance licensing private tankers to supply water. The residents are also asked to intimate Metrowater about digging borewells. The depth of borewells differs from place to place. For Chennai city, the range can be from 4 metres to 6 metres, approximately, says Metrowater officials.

Would desalination be a solution? Thangavelu says tenders have been called for setting up a unit at Minjur, near Chennai, and the deadline for submitting the tender documents is December 18.

N Arun Kumar