The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Individual water connections still a distant dream for residents of southern suburbs

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Individual water connections still a distant dream for residents of southern suburbs

K. Manikandan

Promulgation of a Government Order last year has not yielded any results

Urban local bodies flooded with applications from residents following the GO
Several hundred applications for the connections still pending in and around Tambaram

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

SOLE SOURCE: Public taps continue to be the major source of water supply for residents in the southern suburbs of Chennai.

TAMBARAM: Despite the promulgation of a Government Order on provision of individual water connections last year, most residents in the southern suburbs of Chennai continue to depend on public water taps for their requirement of safe and protected water.

The GO – MS. No. 97, dated July 12, 2007, of the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply, states that residents should be provided with individual water connections within one week from the date of application.

The GO was passed following an announcement by Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin in the Assembly in April last year that the State government had decided to simplify norms for providing drinking water connections in urban areas of Tamil Nadu.

The GO was aimed at reducing the problems of residents in fetching water from public taps to their homes and to increase revenue of the urban local bodies by providing new connections.

Officials of the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply told The Hindu that internal distribution in tandem with water supply improvement schemes for the suburbs was also proposed. These were designed keeping in mind the requirement for the next 30 years.

Six months after the GO was passed, residents in Municipal and Town Panchayat areas in the southern suburbs still do not have individual water connections. Several hundred applications for the connections are pending in the six municipalities and 11 town panchayats in and around Tambaram.

The problem is acute in places covered by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board’s Combined Water Supply Scheme. Recently, a civic group from a town panchayat near Tambaram drew the State government’s attention to the issue.

When contacted, elected representatives and officials of the urban local bodies in this region of Chennai said they were flooded with applications from residents following the GO. They added that were providing as many connections as possible in proportion with the water supply they received from TWAD Board.

Illegal water connections

New connections could be given based only on norms stipulated by State government and not at the discretion of the local bodies. Officials confessed that the unchecked proliferation of illegal water connections in some of the bigger urban areas over the past few years was an important reason for the mismatch between requirement and actual supply.

Senior officials said in keeping with the provisions of the GO, they were expediting work on issuing new connections, with the number of pending applications being kept as low as possible. However, citizens groups were not convinced.

P. Viswanathan, Convenor of Chitlapakkam Residents Welfare Associations’ Coordination Committee, said the GO was “well-intended and aimed at the common good of several thousand people.” The urban local bodies should not blame procedural hassles or lack of adequate water sources as the reason for the delay in providing individual connections.

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