There is certainly no dearth of civic works in this, our city. It will not be wrong to say that the whole metropolis is perpetually in a state of being dug up. If construction sites are not enough to wreck entire neighbourhoods, we have the Chennai Metro project which is a large and necessary one, demanding much patience from the people. And then you have the regular digs done by the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). The latest however will probably put all others in the shade. The same CMWSSB is now proposing a massive ring main that will connect all the reservoirs and desalination plants that supply water to our city. Brace yourselves!
The intention, as always, is noble. The CMWSSB is planning to link all these water sources so that problems of pressure in delivery at various end points are taken care of. Presently, locations that are at the tail end often do not get any water. The new solution is a 93 km pipeline that will go around the city. It is also envisaged that with booster stations coming up at various points along this pipeline, failure of any one of the supplying units can be overcome by water pumped in from elsewhere. The cost is envisaged to be Rs 2,423 crores and the Asian Development Bank has been applied to for a loan. Estimation of time is not available in the public domain.
And that becomes the crucial question. At a time when most roads in the city have their entrails exposed like so many patients in the middle of surgery, this new project is bound to add to the chaos. CMWSSB has assured citizenry that interruptions will be minimal but not everyone is buying that. Past experience has always been otherwise. At present CMWSSB is maintaining that the total dig involved will be 93km but all of these happen to be in heavy traffic roads – GST, Mount Poonamallee and Arcot Roads and then the GNT and Manali-Ennore Roads. All of these have been the sites of eternally in-progress civic works and the patience of residents is wearing thin.
The problem with CMWSSB, unlike Chennai Metro, is that work always progresses in fits and starts. The latter, admittedly disruptive enough, has one mitigating factor you can always see activity and so are reassured that it will come to an end someday. Not so with CMWSSB. The modus operandi there is to dig, leave everything open and abandoned for indefinite periods of time, work in short bursts and extend the deadline indefinitely. The end result too is far from measurable. We have to take CMWSSB’s word for completion.
All of this of course assumes that water is available and secondly that there are piped connections to all locations in the city. Which interestingly, is not the case. Not many may be aware that the particularly new world localities such as OMR do not have piped water supply. They depend on tankers for their daily needs of water, and also periodic removal of wastes. Which also accounts for why the roads there are perpetually in a mess. You would think that a modern, 21st century locality, that is catering to the e-age and is full of gen Z or whatever the current term is, had piped water planned even at inception. But that is not so. And even localities in older parts of the cities are not strangers to this issue. With the CMWSSB not setting right these basic building blocks, to what price this new ring main?