Reports of IT companies, hotels affected by water crisis not true, claims Minister

“The work from home practice is normal in the IT sector. It is not due to the water shortage or anything. They are already buying water from the private tankers,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after holding a review meeting with top officials to take stock of the water crisis in the state, Velumani said hotels were not being closed due to water shortage either.

“Hotels are buying water. We have asked the hotels to save water by using plantain leaves instead of plates to avoid usage of water for washing. If they have any issue in sourcing water, they can reach out to us. We will hold talks with private tanker operators as well,” he said.

Though its four reservoirs have a combined storage of 0.23 per cent as on Monday, the minister assured that the city would get 525 million litres of water per day till November.

Apart from sourcing 180 MLD of water from two desalination plants and 180 MLD from Veeranam and borewells in Neyveli, he said that arrangements were in place to tap other groundwater sources.

In order to monitor water supply in the city, Velumani said monitoring committee has been formed for each zone headed by a Superintendent Engineer, while every three zones would be monitored by chief engineers.

In the last three years, he said that the AIADMK government has spent Rs 15,838 crore, including Rs 2,638 crore by the Chennai Metro Water for water-related works.

“In Chennai, there has been no rain for over 190 days. Despite this, our government has been working towards providing water continuously and our authorities are swiftly solving any problems that arise,” Velumani said.

The minister stated that the government has given instructions to all authorities dealing with water supply to act fast on any issues that arise and to form committees. “We are monitoring everything. We have formed teams to handle any issue that may arise, put out a toll-free number and are ready to deal with any complaints,” he added.