State faces 11% water deficit, stares at acute crisis: study

Julie Mariappan has opined in her article (Saturday April 6, 2013, Times of India Chennai) that Tamil Nadu is facing a deficit of 11%. This bad news, coming as it does at the beginning of a torrid 2013 summer. While the current total water demand in the state, for domestic, irrigation, livestock and industrial needs, is 1,867.85 TMCFT(thousand million cubic feet) per year, the total availability,  from all resources, ins only 1,681.78 TMCFT.    

This deficit will rise to 17% by 2045, said the report, jointly prepared by several central and state governmental agencies, including Tamil Nadu public works department and central water commission. 

Water experts say a 11% deficit at present means that the state is set for an acute water crisis in the coming years, and blame the situation on the lack of serious conservation efforts.

Tamil Nadu, which had three reservoirs, in the pre independent era, has added 82 reservoirs in the last six decades and boasts of 39,200 tanks now. At least 17, 879 of them, big and small, are on the coastal belt, and their status is either ‘good’ or ‘normal’. 

But an alarming 80% overflows for river is wasted, said the report based on the study on ‘Effective utilization of northeast monsoon’.   

What is the role of the State Planning Commission or for that matter the function of state water resources department in this regard? Nobody seems to be doing any perspective plan or engaging in any serious debate for taking a firm decision to implement the same in due course.

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