The Water Resources Department (WRD) held talks with the World Bank representatives on Wednesday over its proposal to implement the Integrated Water Security project for the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) at an estimated loan assistance of ₹5,000 crore.
The projects, which aim to improve CMA’s resilience to droughts and floods, are expected to be submitted for the State government’s approval once the feasibility of the projects are finalised.
In a discussion held with the team of World Bank representatives, the WRD presented about 40 projects to ensure long-term water security of the CMA. While the Department has chalked out nearly 1,064 projects across the major river basins, it plans to prioritise some projects that can be implemented at a relatively low cost.
The team from World Bank that included David Lord, Lead Water Specialist; Mathews Mullackal, Senior Water Specialist, and Somya Sethuraman, consultant, discussed the projects proposed under three components — water conservation and storage, strengthening institutional and governance, and enhancing local water use efficiency. The World Bank is ready to fund the projects.
The WRD has estimated that the water demand in CMA is projected to reach 3,700 million litres a day (mld) by 2050. WRD’s Chief Engineer, Chennai region, C. Podupani Thilagam, who chaired the meeting, said, “We discussed means to conserve resources and also reduce floods through implementing ‘low-hanging fruit’ projects in the next five years. Real-time monitoring of the water bodies through SCADA systems was also discussed.”
