Porur lake water supply stopped

CHENNAI: Metrowater had been drawing water from Porur Lake to reduce dependence on Chembarambakkam and Red Hills reservoirs, but supply from the lake to Kodambakkam, Valasaravakkam, and Alandur zones has been disrupted for close to a month.
The reason: The contractor has not paid salaries and has stopped providing chemicals to treat the water. “Water supply from the lake was stopped because the project contractor stopped paying the operators’ salaries and providing chemicals for treatment.Also, the dissolved air floatation pump failed for a few days. We will resolve the issue soon and supply water,” said a senior Metrowater engineer. Under the project, commissioned in Jan 2023, four million litres a day (MLD) was being pumped twice a week. The disruption has impacted residents who have been used to piped supply for close to a year. Many added areas in Alandur and Valasaravakkam, despite getting piped water for the first time, don’t get it frequently. “We get water for 45 minutes in the morning on alternate days,” said Sanjay K of Kamarajar Salai in Ramapuram. “They can step up the supply from Porur Lake and give us water daily. The lake is hardly 4km from my house.”
The project was inaugurated in 2017 with a 1.85 crore modular treatment plant and a 300-metre-long pipeline that would join another pipeline carrying Veeranam water.
The plan to tap water from Porur, Ayanambakkam, Retteri, and Perungudi was mooted to prevent wastage when water is brought from the two reservoirs and also to improve water supply, especially in added areas.
The official said, “We cannot keep the plant idle because it can go defunct. So, we are treating a minimal amount of water, like 1 MLD-2 MLD, with the available chemicals whenever we can.”