Water doesn t flow
Touted as the solution to all the water problems of Chennai, the New Veeranam Project is Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's hobbyhorse. Under the project, a pipeline has been built to bring 180 million litres of water per day to Chennai from the Veeranam lake in Sathiathopu, Cuddalore district, 235 km away. The project was launched in February 2003 and completed in June 2004. But the World Bank-funded, Rs 720 crore-project was unable to provide the lake's water to Chennai when it needed it the most. This is because every year, from February to July, the lake stays dry.
The Veeranam lake gets 75 per cent of its water from the Cauvery river, according to a study conducted by Annamalai University in 2002 (the remaining coming from the 427.5 sq km catchment during the northeast monsoon). Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been locked in a 30-year-old bitter dispute over the river's water. As the lake was dry when the project was completed, Jayalalithaa had 45 borewells sunk along the length of the pipeline and connected to it. But villages located along the pipeline feel cheated