Chennai's Pallavaram gets reverse osmosis plants to augment water supply in summer

CHENNAI: Pallavaram Municipality has commenced a scheme to provide protected drinking water free of cost to households, especially in tail-end areas.Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants have been set up at 25 locations in the municipality, which has 39 wards. Among the beneficiaries is the family of Malliga S Kannan of Balamurugan Street in Ward No 14, Keelkattalai. “We were receiving good quality drinking water for a long time. But, of late, it has been erratic. Palar water that was supplied to us was good. But there seems to have been some changes. Now, we are satisfied with RO-treated water being provided free of cost,” said Malliga, who runs a roadside eatery on Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road.

Women residents said they get to fill up one pot per family, which was sufficient for their drinking water and cooking requirements.Municipal administration and water supply officials said due to poor terrain and narrow road width, they were unable to operate water tankers in certain pockets. Hence, the RO treated water plants are a boon to residents in such areas.

Pallavaram MLA E Karunanidhi, whose constituency development funds were used to set up the RO plants, said the estimated cost of each unit was about Rs 5 lakh. “Each plant has the capacity to purify 200 litres per hour and we hope to operate for about four to five hours a day so that it can provide 1,000 litres — its full capacity per day,” he said.  They wanted to implement it just ahead of peak summer, he added.

Most RO plants get piped supply and in those areas where they do not get it, they source water through deep borewells. The waste water that is generated at the RO plants is shared by residents around it for gardening and cleaning purposes, Karunanidhi added.

Municipal officials said they were experimenting with chip embossed smart cards to ensure proper use of water for equitable distribution, but there were technical glitches in the process. Kancheepuram district administration too was looking into the matter.