The water agency for the Indian city of Chennai has submitted plans for two desalination plants to the state government for approval.
The plants at Nemmeli and Perur about 40 km south of Chennai will be Chennai Metrowater ‘s third and fourth. Once commissioned, the Perur facility will be the largest with a capacity to treat 400 million litres of seawater a day. The 150 million litres a day Nemmeli plant will be on the on the same site of a 100 million litres a day capacity plant.
Sources in Metrowater said more the plants were needed to meet the growing demand of the city. Low rainfall has caused reservoirs to dwindle and forced the water agency had to reduce water supply from 810 mld to 600 mld for the past one year.
At present, Chennai with a population of 6.7 million has an optimum requirement of about 1,200 illion litres a day . This is expected to go up to 1,500 million litres a day by 2026, when the gap between demand and supply is expected to reach 700 million litres a day.
Once issues, including funding pattern are decided, tenders for the two new plants will to be floated in four or five months. It is understood that the entire project may be completed in three years.