CHENNAI: Preliminary analysis of the quality of Veeranam tank water has shown that there are no worrying levels of pollution.

All the characteristics of the treated water, before distributing to the public in Chennai, are well within the permissible standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards. "Absolutely, there is no reason for the people to panic," says a senior official of Chennai Metrowater.

The testing of water was done on Wednesday at Metrowater's laboratory at Chennai in the wake of reports in a section of the media that water reaching the Veeranam tank might have been polluted by the release of contaminated water from the Orathupalayam dam in Erode district. (The release is being made from the dam to empty the polluted water.)

As regards the presence of metals in the water, the results will be available in a couple of days, the official notes.

At the Madras High Court, Advocate-General N.R. Chandran told the court on Thursday that the release of polluted water from the Orathupalayam dam did not pose any harm to the Veeranam water.

He made this submission when a batch of petitions on the water quality in the dam and the continuing release of untreated trade effluents into the dam by dyeing and bleaching units in Tiruppur came up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Justice M. Karpagavinayagam and Justice C. Nagappan.

According to the Metrowater official, all the characteristics of water even prior to treatment are well within the permissible limit but three, which are colour and transparency, odour and turbidity. A complete process of treatment is made at the Vadakuthu plant in Cuddalore district before conveying it to the Porur water distribution station, the entry point for the public distribution in the city.

Dispelling fear in certain quarters on the pollution, the official explains that the contaminated water mixes with the Cauvery river at the confluence point after flowing for 45 km. For 115 km, the river water travels to reach the Grand Anicut. The distance along the Coleroon river from the Grand Anicut to the Lower Anicut is 80 km and water has to travel 24 km more to reach the Veeranam tank.

What is released from the Orathupalayam dam is five per cent of the total quantum of water flowing in the Cauvery river. This is done to enable natural dilution of the polluted water. As the water released from the dam is subjected to aeration and solar radiation and flows for three days before reaching the Veeranam tank, all its pollution gets diluted naturally, the official says.

The water from the tank is pumped to Vadakuthu, 20 km away, for treatment. Once it is made potable, the water is pumped to Kadambuliyur overhead tank (located at a distance of 8 km) and from there, it flows by natural gravity nearly for a distance of 200 km before reaching the Porur water distribution station.

The official says the level of chlorine is tested at Porur before the distribution in the city.

Besides, a similar exercise is done at 15 other water distribution stations and samples are taken from 300 points all over the city every day.

A rigorous system of water quality analysis is carried out and all the prescribed norms are fulfilled prior to supplying the water to the public, the official adds.

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