CHENNAI: To supply more drinking water to the parched metropolis, government is all set to bring water from the Veeranam lake again. Supply from Veeranam ceased last February due to the lake drying up. “To increase drinking water supply to the city, 120 million litres per day (MLD) of water will be brought from the Veeranam lake in Cuddalore district. With additional inflow, the Chennai metro water board will supply 650 MLD to city residents from Wednesday,” said S.P. Velumani, local administration minister after a review meeting held at Ripon Buildings on Tuesday.
The lake which was supplying 180 million litres of water daily, dried up as last year’s monsoon failed. This led to a severe water crisis, which left metro water officials scouting to find other sources. “To assure uninterrupted water supply to the city, metro water started to draw water from abandoned quarries and irrigation lakes. Water supply will be back to normal with Veeranam water,” a metro water official said.
However, the drinking water requirement of the city remains at 830 MLD. Chennai metro water still has to find sources to get 180 million litres every day to bring back normal supply. “Five lakes providing water to the city are reviving. These lakes attained 35 percent of their total capacity,” added the minister. Residents who were left foraging to get drinking water welcomed the move. “For the past few months, metro water supply totally stopped and this made us depend on groundwater. We hope our locality will get metro water again,” V. Kalyani, a resident of Valasaravakkam said.
