2.5 Million Litres of Water Arrives In Chennai; Will It Be Sufficient?

Chennai has been facing water crisis from the past four to five months, as ground water levels in Chennai and in regions around the city have been falling due to lack of rainfall. So to bring a sigh of relief to the increasing crisis, water for parched Chennai reached the city on Friday. The train was supposed to reach Chennai on Thursday, but leakages in the valves led to the delay.

Chennai has been facing a daily water deficit of at least 200 million litres. The four reservoirs supplying to the city have run dry. Currently, the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Chennai Metro Water) is supplying about 525 million litres per day (MLD) in the state capital. People are now wondering if this water crisis will be solved with 50 tank wagons to the city.

According to News18 report, the train with 50 tank wagons (BTPN), with 50,000 litres of water in each, left Jolarpettai at 7.20 am. Jolarpettai is 217 km away from Chennai in Tamil Nadu's Vellore district. The train was supposed to reach on Thursday, but leakages in the valves led to the delay. Two such trains have been commissioned to transport over 11 million litres of water a day to help Chennaiites tackle the ongoing crisis.

Meanwhile, in Vellore, water is being transported from a water tanker in Jolarpet through a 500 mm pipeline to the rail wagons with a distance of about 3.2 km. The train travels from Jolarpet to Villivakkam in Chennai. At the Villivakkam station, a 400-mm pipeline has been laid in between the tracks that collects water from the rail wagons, News18 further reported.

The water will then be taken through a conduit line to Kilpauk. The conduit line was built many years ago to tranport water from Puzhal lake to Kilpauk. Since Puzhal lake is dry, the line will now be used to transport water from rail wagons to Kilpauk which is about 3 kms. At Kilpauk, water will be treated first and then get distributed to various parts of the city, states media report.

Each water train will supply 2.5 million litres of water a day. The state government said there will be four trips made by trains to transport water to the city to ensure at least 11 million litres of water every day.

Bad water management and lack of rainfall mean all four reservoirs that supply Chennai have run virtually dry this summer.