City of 1,000 Tanks, Chennai
Holistic urban strategy to combat floods, droughts and pollution through blue-green strategies
The project
City of 1,000 Tanks devloped as part of the
Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia programme identifies the interrelationships between the underlying causes of floods, water scarcity and pollution in Chennai and offers a holistic solution to these three problems.
City of 1,000 Tanks intends to develop a Water Balance Model across the city by collecting rainwater, treating wastewater and runoff pollution with decentralised Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), and by recharging both to the underground aquifer. This will prevent climate-change-induced droughts by increasing groundwater reserves and prevent saline intrusion from sea-level rise. Simultaneously, it will mitigate risks associated with high-frequency floods as well as sewage pollution.
This project intends to fix supply-side issues by creating water retention and supply capabilities of 200-250 MLD (Million Litres per Day) in first two phases (out of the current 1,580 MLD urban demand). Chennai risks running out of water in the next decade, given projected increases in population and the depletion of the water table. The project relies on Nature Based Solutions to holistically solve problems of water supply, sewage and flooding.
Team
Eva Pfannes, Sylvain Hartenberg, Jesse Honsa, Nilofer Tajuddin, Hsoc Mathai George
Event
Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia - Call for Action June 2018
Commissioner
Netherlands Enterprise agency (RVO.nl) on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs
Support
100 Resilient Cities, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation, UN/World Bank High Level Panel on Water
Collaborators
TU Delft-Urbanism (Prof. Dr. Han Meijer, Dr. Steffen Nijhuis, Verena Balz), IHE Delft (Dr. Jaap Evers), HKV Consultants (Dr. Bas Kolen), Madras Terrace (Shilesh Hariharan, Archana Y, Sudheendra K), Goethe Institute Chennai (Helmut Schippert), Ramakrishnan Venkatesh, Dr. Vanessa Peter, Rain Center (Dr. Sekhar Raghavan), Paperman (Mathew Jose), Care Earth Trust (Dr. Jayshree Vencatesan), Pitchandikulam Forest Consultants (Joss Brooks), IIT Madras (Dr. Balaji Narasimhan, Prof. Swaminathan, Dr. Indumathi Nambi)
