Six water bodies in north Chennai restored - Storage capacity increased now!!
Poor water quality in the water bodies present at north Chennai has been an issue till now but this issue won`t be there in the future.
Public private partnerships between ITC Limited and state government agencies would be tackling the challenges of the poor water quality in the water bodies. Through its association with IIT-M and GCC, ITCs water stewardship programme at Tiruvottiyur has been superb.
Details about this programme:
It must be noted that this ITCs water stewardship programme focussed on water bodies present in 7 places like Ernavoor, Kasikoilkuppam, Kathivakkam, Vannankulam, AD Colony, Thamaraikulam and Devikulam etc.
Information collected is that the restoration works aimed at de-silting the water bodies, establishing links between tanks through channel restoration and diversion of sewage flowing into the water bodies to the sewage treatment plant. Solid waste and water hyacinth present in the water bodies have been cleaned up.
In as many as 6 water bodies, restoration work has been completed now. By this, the storage capacity of these 6 water bodies has been increased by 3 million cubic feet now. Not only this, the wells have been recharged in many households and groundwater table has improved from a depth of 2.8m to 2m in Tiruvottiyur. This was revealed by a press release.
Degradation of the traditional tank system due to missing links, storage reduction due to silt and solid waste and sewage pollution etc were the problems that have been identified by hydrological study on Chennai city`s zone-1.
It is worth noting that the water stewardship programme at Tiruvottiyur in north Chennai has utilised the public to create awareness about solid waste dumping. Urban waste management communities have been formed also. Truth is that many sewage lines have been redirected to STP and as many as 68 tonnes of garbage were cleared from the 7 water bodies.
