Borewells in 16 places to meet the drinking water demand
Posted on: 16/Mar/2017 10:13:27 PM
The state finance minister Jayakumar announced that in order to meet the drinking water demand of Chennai Metro and its suburbs, 16 giant borewells would be made in different locations.
The Tamil Nadu state government budget 2017-18 was presented today (Thursday, 16th March) in the legislative assembly.
As he read the budget report, the finance minister told that the government has to encounter challenging conditions to address the shortage of drinking water in the existing drought condition in the state.
As there was a severe 62 percent shortfall from the recent northeast monsoon rainy season failure, the groundwater level has gone down considerably.
Further, the major reservoirs supplying drinking water to Chennai Metro have only 10-20 percent their full capacity.
The state government has undertaken the tasks of setting up new borewells, repairing the existing borewells, renovation of existing open wells, changing of pumps, and distribution of drinking water through water tanker lorries. This is carried out at a cost of Rs. 150 Crores for the urban areas and Rs. 460 Crores in the rural areas.
In the revenue-expenditure plans for the financial year 2017-18, Rs. 300 Crores has been allotted for the National Panchayat drinking water project and Rs. 180 Crores has been allotted for the Minimum Requirement project. Rs. 600 Crores has been allotted for the projects to be executed financed by Nabard bank.
