Chennai: Coming down heavily on the state government for its poor management of water resources in Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Public Works Department to collect information from all the districts on compliance of the earlier court orders to clean up encroachments of water bodies and desilt them.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation complaining of effluents flowing into a canal and also the encroachments in the feeding/supply channel from Palar river to Udayendram lake in Vellore area, a division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad expressed unhappiness at the poor water management by the State, pointing out that the present crisis could not have happened in a single day. The government knew very well this was coming, yet took no proper efforts at water management, they said.
The judges wanted the concerned authorities to give a report on the steps taken for removal of encroachments and posted the case for further hearing on June 27. The court also impleaded the state PWD secretary as respondent considering that he was in charge of the upkeep of all the water bodies in the state.
The court also directed the authorities concerned to furnish details of the steps taken for removal of encroachments and issuance of notice to residents and order passed thereof. "We also direct that there should be continuous cleaning of channel." The bench after hearing arguments in its order said: "True that there is failure of monsoon for quite some time now. We have seen rules framed by the government for rainwater harvesting... steps to have been taken for desilting four tanks in Chennai and the availability of water for supply to public in Chennai."
In response to the court order last week seeking a status report on steps taken to address the water problem in the state, the government has now submitted a detailed report about the water situation. In the report from the Chennai Metrowater Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), it stated that since Northeast Monsoon failed in 2017 drying up the lakes, the water supply to the city was reduced from 830 MLD to 525 MLD from June 1, 2017.
The government also told the court that Chennai city was now receiving 180 MLD of water from the desalination plants in Nemmeli and Minjur. It also stated that of the four lakes that usually supply water to the city, only Poondi reservoir has 26 mcft of water as against its full capacity of 3,231 mcft, while the other three-have dried up. Also, 180 MLD is being taken for supplying to Chennai from Veeranam lake in which the present water level is at 569 mcft as against its full capacity of 1,465 mcft. About 900 water tankers are making over 9,400 trips to provide drinking water to the public. Smaller trucks with capacities of 2000-3000 are being used when streets get narrow. Besides, the government was taking steps to set up desalination plants for securing up to 5 MLD to Chennai, the government report said. Also, the Cennai Metrowater report said `212 crore was being steps another are being undertaken by 900 tanker lorries in Chennai and water is also being supplied to narrow streets by smaller vehicles wit
h capacities of 2,000 to 3,000 litres, added the report. In addition to this, the report also stated that steps are being taken to explore the possibilities of setting up new desalination plants which could supply up to 5 MLD water to Chennai city.
The Chennai Metrowater report further stated that `212 crore is being spent on various measures to address the acute water crisis that Chennai is currently facing.The judges went through the government report and raised questions on the crisis management methods used. They wanted to know what steps were taken to prevent rainwater from flowing into the sea instead of waiting till the last moment to create public awareness on RWH. The same was the case about the encroachments of the water bodies and lack of desilting efforts, the court observed.
Responding on behalf of the state government, the Advocate General told the court the present crisis was created by monsoon failure. He said Cholavaram Lake has been desilted at a cost of `38 lakh. Besides, Chennai need not even depend on monsoon for its water needs when the third desalination unit starts operation.
