Metro Water eyes construction sector to sell treated water

With the two Tertiary Treated Reverse Osmosis (TTRO) sewage treatment plants in the city functioning at reduced capacity due to limited demand, the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) is now eyeing the construction sector to sell treated water.

“We are in talks with a major real estate body so that its members can use treated water for construction instead of groundwater. We have asked them for an estimated requirement of the sector,” said an official.

The cost would be lesser than what they would incur when buying water from private firms, he added.

“The quality of tertiary treated water is on a par with the RO water that people buy in bubble top cans. But we don’t supply it as drinking water due to the stigma,” said another senior official.

Metro Water runs two TTRO plants at Koyambedu and Kodungaiyur, each with a daily capacity of 45 million litres. At present, only three firms, including CPCL, are procuring tertiary treated water for industrial usage. Some firms in SIPCOT near Poonamallee procure TTRO water but they use it only after treating again at their own facility.

Due to the lack of demand, the plants are functioning at only half their capacity.

The construction sector is open-minded about using treated water. “Most of the construction sites are using groundwater. In areas where the quality of groundwater is bad, lorry water from private parties is procured and stored in sumps. In areas like OMR, the groundwater available might be worse than treated water. In such areas, treated water is a better option,” said S Rama Prabhu of Builders’ Association of India.

However, he requested Metro Water to give quality assurance by getting it tested for quality by reputed institutions. “Metro Water should first supply treated water for government constructions so that builders and people come forward to use it,” he opined.

Apart from TTRO water, the utility also supplies secondary treated water to Greater Chennai Corporation for watering parks and centre medians.