Chennai

The water position in Chennai has been satisfactory for several years now because of a couple of good monsoons, good supply from Andhra Pradesh and from the Veeranam Lake. The rainwater harvesting systems installed by many citizens have also helped in improving ground water levels. However, citizens should not presume that their water problems are solved for the following reasons;

Chennai’s water needs are mainly met by impounding the rainwater from the Araniar-Kortalayar rivers north of the city and the capacity of the reservoirs is woefully inadequate. It has been estimated that an entire year’s supply flows wastefully into the sea consequently. The quantum of supply from AP and the Veeranam Lake is uncertain.

Organiser: Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Topic: Training on customized free and open source 'Gram Panchayat QGIS' software

Duration: Feb 8th-12th, 2010 (Mon-Fri)

The ASCE Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI), is organising the 3rd International Perspective on Current & Future State of Water Resources & the Environment from 5th to 7th January 2010 in Chennai.

For a GIS zealot like me, this is breaking news on the Indian mapping front. Finally a GIS application for risk-mapping and management of floods in India!

The Flood Risk Mapping Study, funded by the Water Resources wing of the Public Works Department to a tune of Rs 2,17 crores, is an initiative of the Tamil Nadu State Government. It is supported by the Centre's Department of Science and Technology and Survey of India in the research component of the project. This one-year project is being handled by Anna University’s Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS), Chennai.

This research study, by Veena Srinivasan, addresses the challenge of supplying water to rapidly growing cities in South Asia, using evidence from the water-scarce city of Chennai. Chennai (formerly Madras) is a rapidly growing metropolis of over 6.5 million people, whose infrastructure has not kept pace with its growing demand for water. In the year 2003-2004, Chennai experienced a severe water crisis, the piped supply for the entire city was virtually shut down for a 12-month period. Consumers became dependent on private tanker suppliers trucking in untreated groundwater from peri-urban areas.

The Chennai Rain Centre, the first of its kind in the country, is a one-stop information and assistance center on rainwater harvesting.

125 million people are likely to migrate in the coming century of which 75 million will be from Bangladesh. The people from Bangladesh will most likely migrate to India in addition to our own 50 to 60 million people who will be displaced due to sea-level rise, shrinking water sources due to CC in the densely populated coastal regions of India.

CMWSSB or Metro Water was established in 1978 and serves 180 sq kms of area and 5.5 million population.

These "before-after" satellite map images from the UNOSAT website depict the impact of the 2004 Tsunami on the Tamil Nadu coast.

Chennai. http://www.eawater.com/expo/, marketing@eawater.com