string(29) ‘ period took up one more year\. ‘
Environmentally friendly Fresh Water Source for Chennai city, Tamil Nadu, India A Status Update Joseph Thomas, Chief Technology Officer, Villgro, Chennai, India 3H, IIT Madras Study Park, Kanagam Road, Taramani, Chennai, Tamil Nadu India 600113. Telephone +91 forty-four 6663 0400, email:[email, protected] org, mobile +91 98840 49116 Key phrases: Rain water cropping, Sustainable hydrant, Urban freshwater.
Abstract Chennai city, one of the main metropolises of India, is situated at the northern coastal border of the State of Tamil Nadu. Metropolis is more recognized by its older name of Madras.
Currently, Chennai is inhabited by a lot more than 7 mil people within an area of 176 sq km. Water supply in this population can be maintained simply by tapping a combination of surface storage reservoirs and aquifers. The Chennai City Water Supply and Sewerage Plank (CMWSSB), a statutory body established 33 years ago, is responsible for hydrant and sewerage services inside the Chennai Metropolitan Area. The primary sources of community water supply inside the city are definitely the three reservoirs ” Poondi, Redhills and Cholavaram ” with an aggregate storage capacity of 175 million cu metres (MCM).
The additional major source is groundwater from the well-fields in the Araniar-Kortaliyar basin plus the southern seaside aquifer, and also a large number of bore holes and tube-wells spread all across the city (Figure 1). Over-extraction of groundwater resulted in an instant ingress of seawater, which will extended by 3 kilometres inshore in 1969 to 7 km in 1983 and on the lookout for km in 1987[[i]]. Groundwater levels within the town also dropped and brackish water started to appear, possibly in localities which earlier had high quality groundwater resources.
The CMWSSB calculates water availability based upon surface and aquifer contributions under its direct control. Since it identified reservoirs and other surface source as more significant for a long time, very little attention was paid to subsurface storage area or floor water charge. As an outcome of research, created by several organizations the CMWSSB embarked on a campaign to develop ground water recharge facilities in the town, and later throughout the State. This kind of led to significant changes in ground water levels and to the quantum of water available to the population of any growing locale. pic]Number 1 . Launch The Chennai Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) is solely responsible for providing drinking water and sewerage services to the residents of Chennai. One of India’s major metropolises, Chennai can be found at the upper coastal edge of the Point out of Tamil Nadu. Metropolis is more well-known by the older term of Écharpe. Currently, Chennai is lived on by more than 7 , 000, 000 people in an area of 176 sq kilometers. The CMWSSB depends on surface area reservoirs and ground drinking water sources to take care of water supply towards the residents.
Source is managed through multiple means. Since Chennai is basically low-lying and water supply is intermittent, most residents build underground sumps that store the water. Eventually, the water can be pumped up to an over head tank. Consist of cases, water tankers will be dispatched simply by CMWSSB to varied localities and the sumps and so are from the tankers. In other localities, CMWSSB provides put in place above-ground water storage containers and they are filled by the water tankers.
In but other places, occupants collect normal water directly from the tanker, observe Figure 2 . [pic] Figure 2: Water to drink collection from tankers immediately by occupants. Despite the seemingly abundant types of water, Chennai suffers constantly from drinking water stress because the entire container is dependent upon rainfall. The annual rain fall in Chennai is 1200 mm [[ii]]. This quantum is definitely, given the size of the Chennai basin, adequate to meet the needs of the population. 55 with the circulation of the rain fall.
There are two rainy periods in Chennai. The first is the Southwest monsoon, which has patchy rains and contributes about 25% of the total rainfall and comes between May and September. This does not perform much for ground drinking water recharge. However , the Southwest Monsoon (Oct to Dec) is usually seen as a a series of storms that delivers the remaining 74% of total rain in extremely short bursts. During this time, Chennai can be prone to surging and, prior to 2003, a huge part of this kind of water would have been misplaced as run-off into the sea.
CMWSSB typically focused the attention on increasing surface storage, moving fresh water via long miles. Like the Telugu Ganga task , probably one of the greatest canals intended for water supply to the city that failed to ease this particular problem. An additional attempt was going to divert normal water from Chembaramabakkam and Veeranam tanks whereby the water rights of the rustic community had been infringed. Going of borewells in the Cuddalore belt and installation of generator pumps to tap 100mld whereby the groundwater which will again helps the local cultivation community was depleted.
None of them of these solutions were eco friendly in the long run but CMWWSSB paid very little awareness of ground water recharge that had that potential. In 1997, at the Shri AMM Murugappa Chettiar Research Center (MCRC), Chennai, [[iii]] a report was carried out to understand the user experience. The study surveyed twelve, 000 people in 155 corporation wards of Chennai. The focus was on how citizens get their normal water needs attained and how the water is used. Raw info from this study was further analyzed by Dr . A Vaidyanathan and J. Saravanan [[iv]].
These studies clearly set up that the contribution of floor water could be as high as many of these in some cases. Another section is going to take up an easy summary of the research plus the subsequent areas will deal with the steps taken by CMWSSB and other civil world organisations to get rain water harvesting introduced. The final section will explain the results of these attempts on the ground drinking water table. The research and changes The study conducted by MCRC was across 12, 000 households, representing a roughly 1% sample.
One other 2500 research across, organization, educational, institutional, governmental and industrial establishments were taken on between Sept. 2010, 1995 and January, 1996. The analysis phase used another 12 months.
The Tamil Nadu unit in the national water-harvesting network premiered in Apr 1999. The network was meant to: (i) provide an opportunity for individuals and institutions definitely engaged in drinking water harvesting, in Chennai, to share their experience and knowledge and promote free and open conversation among them, and (ii) to reach out to a wider public in the city and out of doors to pass on the function of downtown rainwater collection in terms of technology, experience and its potential contribution in getting together with urban drinking water needs. It was Prof.
Vaidyanathan who after that asked for the raw data from the MCRC study and did his own declaration of the info and examination. In the background daily news that came out of your analysis [3] the following was stated: “The present conventional paper is meant to give an overview with the present and future needs of the metropolis, the limited and costly scope to get augmenting surface area supplies, the advantages of a two-pronged strategy of conservation/recycling and Rain Water Enjoying (RWH) to improve ground water recharge. This proved the outcomes of the MCRC study.
The two MCRC analyze and the CSE study featured the dependence of people about multiple options for their water consumption rather than just CMWSSB and the hefty dependence on groundwater by equally. Thus the RWH marketing campaign was backed up by good research effects of MCRC and CSE. These studies were required to convince the population and the plan makers. It must be mentioned below that the after that Chairman and Managing Overseer of CMWSSB, Ms. Shanta Sheela Nair understood these types of results and backed the RWH motion fully. In a 2006 newsletter [[vi] ] Prof. Vaidyanathan and his colleague, J.
Saravanan summarized the action with the government as follows: “In Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, the developing dependence on groundwater since the 1972s is evident in the sinking of increasing numbers of open wells and deep lose interest wells. This kind of trend, an indicator of the increasing water shortage in the metropolis, led to a progressive fall in groundwater levels and seawater invasion in seaside aquifers. Faced with this crisis, the State govt passed the Chennai Groundwater Regulation Work in 1987, which desired mainly to curb the commercial groundwater exploitation within the city limitations.
In 2001, rainwater enjoying (RWH) became mandatory in multi-storeyed properties. The unmatched and severe droughts in the ensuing 2 years intensified the groundwater crisis to such a degree that, in August 2003, the government exceeded an ordinance making RWH mandatory for a lot of buildings (existing and new) in the town and over the State. It further set a deadline of August 31, 2003 for this procedure to be finished. A vigorous publicity travel convinced the public that the authorities was serious about implementing the programme and providing technical advice that help in the design and construction of RWH structures.
This led to unparalleled activity across the towns and cities of the State, specifically Chennai city, and the plan was known as successful. With this endeavour, however , very few took on the city corporation, private consultants or perhaps NGOs together with the relevant experience for assistance in designing and building their RWH structures. Most relied about plumbers or their own knowledge. Independent experts pointed out many problems with the programme, observing that ) the time given for the implementation of this ordinance was too short, b) there were too few specialists with the experience and knowledge needed to design appropriate systems for the widely varying conditions, c) the supply of trained and skilled time to put into practice the functions was likewise inadequate to handle the scale and speed with the programme, d) the availability of quality materials for setup was as well inadequate, and e) there is hardly any systematic follow-up to check on the quality of the works reported to be finished.
There were common but unverified reports that, simply in order to meet the fine prints, grossly limited RWH buildings had been set up, the capacity and quality of design and implementation giving much to get desired. This is an instance of decentralisation that, despite the presence of a “felt need, happened without satisfactory consultation. The legislation in regard of RWH was welcome however the actual program was terribly implemented and monitored. Although the programme applied to all classes of housing, it dismissed those moving into informal negotiations such as slums within the town limits.
These types of areas could have benefited via RWH in public places building and public spots ” a piece that received very little focus. Moreover, zero steps were taken under this plan to claim back tanks and wetlands in the city that, in the past, not merely functioned while recharge buildings but were also used while sources of home water simply by communities. The Government offers since 2009 been functioning towards cleaning the rivers of Chennai. This effort has found the government attract on municipal corporation, exclusive consultants and NGOs while using relevant competence to work with this significant effort.
There is a project with an outlay of Rs 1, 500 crore (approx US $300 million) to make the city flood-free[[vii]]. In March 2010 the Chennai Metropolitan Advancement Authority kept a Seminar on Rivers in Chennai. The proceedings [[viii] ] contain a list of 36 suggestions and some of them are re-produced here: 1 . The sequence of actions to tackle the condition may be ” (a) ton alleviation (b) prevention of pollution for the waterways (c) cleaning up from the waterways by removing encroachments , obstructions (d) restoration / improvements to the waterways and its extended maintenance.. Floods are opportunities to augment surface water refresh to be facilitated by structure of examine dams, filtration wells, and underground tunnels/storage reservoirs, if the soil conditions and inclines permit. a few. Flood plains should be designed along the waterways in the areas outside the villages and towns, adopting the retention unit, as a answer against avalanche hazards, these kinds of flood plains could be created as recreational areas or green belts to get recreation including camp sites. 4. Eco-engineering should also become adopted as being a solution to deliver nature as well as rejuvenate the rivers. five.
It is recommended that business sector contribution, and public participation, in planning and improvement of lakes and rivers ought to be encouraged. Cleaning of waterways and preservation of normal water bodies ought to be thought of as a movement with the participation coming from all stakeholders such as general public. six. Adequate general public awareness about the risks of pollution of normal water bodies as well as the remedial measures has to be made by arranging community education campaigns. Receiving the citizens involved is important, ‘Saving Waterways’ will need to become a peoples’ movement.. Utilization of sewage pertaining to power technology and taking of squander water should be encouraged. 8. Area creation plans prepared at tiny level, including Detailed Creation Plans, ought to contain ideas for floor water recharge, at least in large premises including schools and public spots. Sustainability actions should form part of the Bundled River Refurbishment Plans. Precisely what is evident is that the final results of research take time to percolate down to the agencies decided to make the changes required for sustainability. It also takes a good quantity of personal will.
Most of the change of attitude of governmental organizations can also be tracked backed to strong personal thrust to implement all of the changes. Results Data on enhancements made on groundwater volume and top quality has to be offered here, generally based on mass media stories. A lot of researchers think that the effects of rainfall harvesting and subsequent surface water refresh are so noticeable that quantifying is not just a priority. The Table below (Figure 3) shows the amount of rain water collection structures developed by the Corporation of Chennai, as reported on the website. Rain Water Harvesting created by Corporation of Chennai Firm owned structures |1344 Buildings | |Flyovers and Links |29 Set ups | |Open low-lying areas |242 Buildings | |Road Margins |945 Structures | |Corporation Roadways |2698 Buildings | |Corporation pond |1 No . | |Temple Containers |16 Em. | |Residential / Industrial / Organization Buildings |329959 Buildings | Figure a few[[ix]] An article released in a leading daily in Chennai, The Hindu, old January, 23 2009 experienced many interesting points to generate about the results of RWH and ground-water boost. [x]] “The CMWSSB study of 759 RWH observatory bore holes shows that since the installation of RWH structures in about five-hundred, 000 of its consumer households was performed mandatory in 2004, there has been a 50 per cent rise in the water level. According to the CMWSSB officials, over the last five years, the water level across the city has gone up by 3 to 6 metres. In the same way, the water top quality in several areas has also confirmed improvement. The sustained typical rainfall since 2004 and the correct maintenance of RWH structures generally in most households have already been the principal causes. Following the drought period in 2003, when ever Chennai received only about 690 mm of rainfall since against the normal of just one, 200 millimeter, the water desk had retreated and, by using an average, i visited 7-8 metres below floor. In many spots it was in 10 meters depth and, in some, it absolutely was at twelve m.
Carrying out a good monsoon (2, 064 mm) in 2005 and rainwater collection, the ground normal water table saw a great appreciable within several areas and the water table come to 1 meters depth beneath ground. The total dissolved hues (TDS), which were earlier up to 4, nine hundred parts every million (ppm) in some areas, dropped to permissible numbers of 500 ppm, greatly bettering the quality of water (see Determine 4). [pic] Figure 4[10] “Before the onset of every monsoon, Metrowater officials execute a arbitrary check from the RWH set ups for their maintenance and create awareness about the need to retain these in good condition. Harnessing of rainwater that gets gathered in thunderstorm water drain network might help reduce the inundation in roads and large volumes of water depleting into ocean every year¦..
Unless rain runoff in both open public and private areas in the town is harnessed, Chennai may possibly lose out on the precious source and may end up having water challenges during the summer season, be aware rain-water collection experts. Conclusions This demonstration has tried to show that it takes a lot of persistent work to address a problem in detrimental society. In Chennai, as well as the whole of Tamil Nadu, the problem was one of drinking water stress. Analysis showed which the available rainfall could help people cope nevertheless fresh water from the rain was being lost towards the sea. Based on this, a proposal was performed that floor water refresh was a viable, low-cost answer. This proposal had to be championed. Prof. Vaidyanathan and the then simply Chairman of CMWSSB, Shanta Sheela Nair, did exactly that.
They confirmed with wonderful determination and many pilot studies that rainfall harvesting can be viable and worthwhile. They managed to influence the government of the, and RWH became a statutory requirement for all structures in the point out. Monitoring the quantity and top quality of the ground water has demonstrated the significant alterations this legal guidelines has brought in. As a side-effect a greater comprehension of the need to clean, preserve and secure all kinds of fresh water systems has prevailed among the politics circles, bureaucracy, NGOs and civil world. The people also have shown superb resolve in implementing the perfect solution since it immediately affects their particular lives.
The type of study carried out by MCRC and CSE can be a method to assess water sources, intake pattern, every capita availability and need particularly in developing countries. This way the water supply program can be better planned and implemented being sustainable. Recommendations , , , , , , , , [i] http://www. rainwaterharvesting. org/Crisis/Urbanwater-scenario. htm [ii] Balakrishnan, Big t., Technical Record Series Section Groundwater Leaflet, Chennai Area, Tamil Nadu. Central Surface Water Board, South East Coastal Location, Chennai, Ministry of Normal water Resources, Government of India, November 08. Published by Regional Director, CGWB, SECR, E-1, Rajaji Bhavan, Besant Nagar, Chennai -600090, Tel: +9144 24912941/24914494, Fax +9144 24914334 Net: www. cgwb. gov. in email [email, protected] in iii] Thomas, Frederick, Sustainable Freshwater Supply intended for Madras (now Chennai) City, India (Contract No . S$P/95/0042) Final report submitted to UNICEF, 73, Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110 003, Printed simply by Shri AMM Murugappa Chettiar Research Hub, Tharamani, Écharpe (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India six-hundred 113, May 1997. [iv] A. Vaidyanathan , J. Saravanan, Chennai’s Water Supply Problems and Leads (A backdrop paper) Nationwide Water Harvestors Network “Tamil Nadu Product, Centre for Science and Environment. (undated circa 2000) [v] http://www. manage. gov. in/managelib/extdig/Jul99Water. htm [vi] Vaidyanathan, A. with Saravanan, L. ‘The Downtown Water Scene: A Case Research -Water Circumstance in Chennai City’ in A.
Vaidyanathan, India’s Water Methods: Contemporary Issues on Water sources. New Delhi, Oxford School Press, 209-247 (2006). [vii] http://www. business-standard. com/india/news/tn-govt-to-takers-1400-cr-flood-control-project/397769/ [viii] http://www. cmdachennai. gov. in/pdfs/SeminarOnWaterways/1. pdf [ix] http://www. chennaicorporation. gov. in/departments/storm-water-drain/introduction. htm [x] http://www. hindu. com/pp/2009/01/31/stories/2009013150010100. htm Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the Villgro Innovations Basis for time given to publish this conventional paper. The valuable inputs by J. Saravanan also provided the author the confidence to create some of the conclusions presented below.
