Water pilferage: Metrowater cracks the whip on violators

Cracking the whip on this, officials disconnected water supply to a residential building in Annai Indira Nagar Extension in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zone, on Thursday. According to the officials, this came to light during the random raids that they have been conducting at the time of scarcity. That is when they found a motor pump at a house drawing water from their pipe. Because of this, other residents on the street could not get sufficient water. “We warned the building owner and disconnected the water connection,” said an official.

On Thursday, a raid was conducted in Kodambakkam zone, too, but could not find anything illegal. Explaining the methods that residents employ, another official said some residents would connect hosepipes to the inlet pipes connected to the sumps. When water is released, they would switch on the motors to draw as much water as they can. “Residents can have motors to transfer water to overhead tanks from sumps, but they should not connect motors to inlet pipes. Some residents connect motors to hand pumps too,” the official said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that State-run utility is mulling to increase the penalty against those stealing water. The Metro Water is empowered to disconnect water connection for three months and besides paying the fine, the building owners should pay charges to get the connection back after the passage of three months. For illegal tapping of water, the fine is Rs 10,000 for residential buildings while it is Rs 20,000 in the case of commercial buildings.

“Senior officials are contemplating to increase the period of disconnection to one year from present three months. This move will discourage the residents from using motors during the summer season,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the Metro Water claims that it supplies 550 MLD (million litre per day) of water to the city on alternate days, which is 280 MLD less than the actual need. As the lakes supplying drinking water to the city went down to dead storage level, the utility has started drawing water from abandoned quarries.

Adding to the water woes, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) has been forced to stop drawing water from Chembarambakkam Lake as the waterbody had already reached a dead storage, on Thursday. “The lake had already reached dead storage and water could not be drawn anymore as there is only sludge left.

However, water drawn from the quarries in Sikkarayapuram is being treated at a treatment plant located in the lake,” a Chennai Corporation official said. The Metrowater had already stopped drawing water from Cholavaram Lake.

Presently, the water manager supplies 550 MLD water on alternate days to Chennai and it has been tapped from Poondi lake, Redhills lake, desalination plants and from Veeranam lake in Cuddalore district. According to Metrowater data, Chembarambakkam lake has meagre 9 Mcft of water against its full capacity of 3645 Mcft.

In 2018 on the same day, the lake had a storage of 1,186 Mcft. “Poondi and Redhills lakes have storage of 321 Mcft and 283 Mcft now,” the official added. Despite two of the four lakes supplying drinking water to the city gone dry, the Metrowater officials claim that they could meet the water needs. “We are tapping 30 MLD of water from quarries in Sikkarayapuram and are yet to draw water from Porur lake and agricultural wells. We will maintain 550 MLD throughout the summer,” the official added.