Piped water supply elude thousands in Avadi for 15 days

Chennai: With no piped water supply for more than 15 days, at least 5,000 residents in Avadi corporation limits have been forced to depend entirely on water supplied through private tankers to meet daily needs. Affected neighbourhoods include Annanur, Sakthi Nagar, Sivan Street and Vaishnavi Nagar.

Avadi largely depends on Metrowater supply and borewells. Residents said the pipeline infrastructure has not kept pace with rapid urban growth. The region has witnessed a spurt of housing projects and apartment complexes.

Only about one-third of Avadi’s 48 wards have piped drinking water supply. The corporation requires around 47 million litres per day (MLD), but receives only about 16 MLD from Metrowater, borewells, lakes and other sources.

In Vaishnavi Nagar, residents said the disruption has worsened existing issues. The supply is often irregular and released at unpredictable times, making it difficult for working families to manage. “Every day, we reach for the tap in hope of some respite, but not a drop has come in the last week. We have to spend ₹2,000 on private water tankers each time,” said V Arun Selvam, a resident.
K Shanmugam, president of the Private Water Lorries Association, said nearly 700 tankers operate in Avadi, making more than 100 trips daily and charging between ₹3,500 and ₹5,000 per load. Residents here pay significantly more for the supply than those in other parts of Chennai.
Despite ₹350 crore being allocated under the AMRUT scheme, residents said the work progress has been slow. Only around 30,000 water connections are functional in densely populated areas such as Paruthipattu and Kamaraj Nagar. Even five years after Avadi became a corporation, several areas still lack piped water supply and sewer connections.
“There is no proper system to lodge complaints, and officials are not accessible. Promises are made during elections, but no real change happens,” said T Sadagopan, president of a consumer welfare association.
V Sivaraman, vice-president of Sivasakthi Nagar Residents Welfare Association, said, “The corporation has been very active in rolling out projects on paper, but so far, no proper action has been taken to implement them. Earlier, they said a team from IIT Madras would inspect the place, and they would provide a plan to build a sewer network in the area. However, no such thing has happened so far.”
Responding to the concern, Avadi corporation officials said the water supply is disrupted only in a few areas, for which the corporation has already set up a water tank, and that there is no water scarcity within the corporation limits.