6 months ago
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As the adjacent measurement towards making Chennai water- and climate-resilient done a Water Security Plan, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has initiated discussions with the World Bank to place precedence projects and finalise backing support.
A preliminary gathering was held betwixt WRD officials and World Bank representatives to sermon h2o conservation projects to span the widening spread betwixt h2o request and supply, and besides physique flood-resilient infrastructure.
This follows the State government’s support earlier this twelvemonth of the broad plan, which recommended astir 704 projects worthy ₹20,000 crore to decentralise h2o proviso strategy successful the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) and mitigate the interaction of clime alteration connected h2o resources.
With the extremity of making Chennai h2o unafraid by 2047, the WRD aims astatine creating an further retention capableness of 20.5 1000 cardinal cubic feet (tmcft) done assorted initiatives nether the Chennai City Partnership Programme.
Chennai Metrowater’s survey had estimated that the freshwater request successful the metropolis unsocial would emergence to 22.52 tmcft by 2050.
Officials of the WRD said they would soon statesman preliminary works to execute 50-60 projects connected precedence implicit the adjacent 3 oregon 4 years. Discussions are nether mode to instrumentality the projects done public-private partnerships successful a phased manner.
To optimise h2o conservation, the section plans to heighten the retention capableness of astir 110 tanks successful Chennai and its surrounding districts, arsenic good arsenic large reservoirs, including Poondi. Additionally, it plans to physique caller retention structures and riverine reservoirs crossed assorted waterways, including Palar and Kosasthalaiyar rivers.
“We are aiming for low-investment, high-impact conservation measures that tin beryllium implemented rapidly without large hurdles. The cheque dams crossed the Palar, which are already overflowing, volition beryllium utilized to further heighten h2o conservation,” an authoritative said.
The section expects to harness astatine slightest six tmcft of h2o done precedence projects worthy ₹3,000 crore successful the archetypal phase.
For instance, the waterbodies successful Thiruninravur, Nemam, Thaiyur, Nandivaram-Guduvancherry, Pillaipakkam and Manamathi would beryllium converted into reservoirs with improved retention capacity.
Tail-end tanks of each concatenation of waterbodies volition beryllium chosen to conserve resources and trim flooding. Local bodies successful the CMA volition besides beryllium progressive successful ensuring decentralised h2o proviso infrastructure.
Percolation ponds
Besides creating groundwater recharge structures specified arsenic the recharge of Panchetti good fields, and percolation ponds successful zones affected by seawater intrusion, including Minjur and Pazhaverkadu, projects to found missing links betwixt waterbodies and conception flood regulators successful tanks are successful the pipeline, officials added.
The section is besides simultaneously moving successful concern with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) to instrumentality flood mitigation projects successful the city’s halfway areas. Once the task proposals for the archetypal signifier are finalised, the section volition attack the State authorities for approval.
