The News Review:

- Water supply – facts and figures
- People grapple with water scarcity, erratic power supply
- Central nod for JNNURM water supply scheme
- HMWSSB to get Malaysian inputs
- A Bracks vision that doesn’t hold water

Water supply – facts and figures
Hindu – Feb 24, 2007
Besides the four reservoirs— Poondi, Red Hills, Cholavaram and Chembarambakkam— located on the fringes of the city, two significant projects add to the supply by transporting water from the Veeranam lake near Cuddalore and the Kandaleru reservoir (Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh). The Chennai Metrowater-owned six well fields on the outskirts of the city, including Kannigaipeyar, Panjetty and Minjur, also contribute substantial amount of water to the city. The raw water drawn from these sources is disinfected through treatment plants and pumped into the distribution system. Three treatment plants play a major role in purifying the source to drinking water standard. The water drawn from the Red Hills reservoir is disinfected at a treatment plant near the lake before being transported through a 12-km conduit pipeline to the Kilpauk Waterworks. Similarly, a treatment plant at Vadakuthu disinfects the water from the Veeranam lake before it is pumped to the pipeline that covers about 230 km before reaching the city…
Fishermen’s colonies along the coastline are provided with potable water through reverse osmosis plants in Velachery, Nochikuppam and Kasimedu. A few more plants are planned to serve such colonies. The much awaited desalination project envisaged to augment water supply is also under way with bids called for consultation reports. The Chennai Metrowater also supplies 30 mld water to the local bodies as bulk supply. The IT Corridor would soon be linked to the existing network as work order is expected to be issued for the commencement of the project. 44 cr has been sanctioned as grant under JNNURM.

People grapple with water scarcity, erratic power supply
Hindu – Feb 24, 2007
Madikeri: The drinking water problem in Madikeri is turning into a crisis. The Kootuhole reservoir, the main source of supply for the city, is drying up well ahead of the monsoon season. Certain wards in the city have been getting water only once in two or three days…
Power The people of Kodagu have been putting up with erratic power supply for many years. Unscheduled power cuts, load shedding and low voltage do not help in pumping water into storage tanks and filter beds. The Roshanara and the Pumpinakere, the other two sources of water supply, are also depleted. Political parties have been competing with each other in proposing water supply schemes to alleviate the problem in Madikeri city. Some persons allege that a holiday resort near here is adding to the problem by drilling numerous borewells. Suggestions for the water problem include: lifting of Cauvery water from Betri, 22 km from here. But some people are opposed to this.

Central nod for JNNURM water supply scheme
Hindu – Feb 24, 2007
201-crore project is aimed at supplying 100 million litres of water a day to areas including Chellanam, Kumbalangi, Kumbalam, Navy and the Port area. Announcing this at a Corporation council meeting on Friday, Mayor Mercy Williams said that the scheme was one of the first projects to be sanctioned for the city under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) initiated by the Union Government for developing basic infrastructure facilities for a number of cities. The first phase of the project would start in the coming financial year…
The first phase of the project would start in the coming financial year. Fund release Funds would be released as soon as the technical formalities of signing a memorandum of understanding between the State and the Union Government were completed. Water from the river would be taken in at Pazhoor and the treatment plant would be set up at Nettoor for the project. The scheme would also be one of the first to reduce the dependence of the city on the Periyar. The ambiguity surrounding the purchase of equipment for spraying chemicals to curb mosquito menace was discussed at the meeting.

HMWSSB to get Malaysian inputs
Hindu – Feb 24, 2007
3 lakh connections are illegal 170 bulk flow meters being installed in select areas HYDERABAD: Continuing its privatisation spree, the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), on an experimental basis, is roping in the services of a Malaysian water management firm to carry out a study of the water supply network to check largescale distribution losses and non-revenue water. A staggering 40 per cent of water is lost owing to leakages in the distribution process and illegal connections, putting a huge dent into the water board’s revenue flow. According to a board estimate, a staggering 30 per cent of its 5. 3 lakh connections in the twin cities and surrounding municipalities were illegal. “To begin with, we will select a section and study the distribution network there apart from the supply pattern, vulnerable leakage points and also the number of illegal connections,” HMWSSB Managing Director K.

A Bracks vision that doesn’t hold water
The Age – Feb 24, 2007
“The only explanation for why they’re continuing to push this isthat the dairy industry around Shepparton currently pulls water outof the Goulburn, which is at 24 per cent allocation,” he said. “So the interconnector would allow one of the most powerfulagricultural lobbies in the country to pull water out of theMurray, which is at 95 per cent allocation. Mr Sinclair suggested that the water may also supplement thattaken by the so-called “Goldfields Superpipe” being built to supplywater from the Goulburn to Bendigo and Ballarat. Mr Thwaites said that would be another benefit of the channel,but would require only 38 gigalitres. Other conservationists andriver campaigners this week described the interconnector as a whiteelephant that could devastate the already stressed wetlands andriver red gum forests by further reducing the natural floodingneeded to keep them healthy. Monash University hydrologist Dr Tony Ladson, of the Instituteof Sustainable Water Resources, said that while the Governmentpromised to maintain environmental flows to the Barmah Forest andclaimed the bypass could help regulate unseasonal flooding, he wassceptical. To allow for flows that followed summer rains and whenirrigators cancelled orders, either the river or the channel wouldneed to be kept half-full, he said.