The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Study on groundwater contamination in south Chennai begins

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Sunday, Sep 14, 2008
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Study on groundwater contamination in south Chennai begins

T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI: Perungudi on the southern outskirts of Chennai is home to several leading Information Technology companies. But, it is also known for groundwater contamination. The problem is a fallout of indiscriminate dumping of solid waste.

South Chennai has several other water-related problems, including undue pressure on water bodies, drainage implications and reliance on water market.

Conscious of the gravity of the problems in this part of the city, Anna University’s Centre for Water Resources (CWR) has identified five topics, which are being pursued by Ph.D. students under a programme funded by the Netherlands Government.

The impact of urbanisation on ecological sustainability of peri-urban water bodies, groundwater contamination potential and health impact due to solid waste dumping practices, flooding in south Chennai, urbanisation and drainage implications for sustainable development, water markets in Chennai and hydro-geological-

socioeconomic implications on peri-urban areas and impact of urbanisation on groundwater, sanitation and health issues are the topics.

K. Karunakaran, CWR Director, says the topics were chosen after a series of consultations with stakeholders such as the community, farmers, local bodies, government departments/agencies and educational and research institutions.

Called the Integrated Water Resources Management, the programme has a provision for postgraduate course too. Over a period of five years, 50 PG students and five women Ph.D scholars are provided scholarship. “The first batch of PG students passed out this year,” Dr. Karunakaran, says, adding that the programme began two years ago.

Dr. Karunakaran notes that the IWRM programme is a South Asian project funded by The Netherlands government. There are six partner institutions from other nations in the region such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

After discussions among all the institutions concerned and experts from Netherlands, it had been decided to select south Chennai as the study area for exhaustive research in water, sanitation and health and that the Centre for Water Resources would be the focal point of the research.

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