Over the past few months now, Chennai’s residents have been witnessing a lot of frenzy in construction activities in their streets as the corporation authorities are keen on executing a city-wide stormwater drain project before the onset of the northeast monsoon.
The rains in Bengaluru and Gurugram earlier this month brought both cities to a halt with almost all parts of the cities experiencing severe flooding. This and Chennai’s own past experiences during the floods in 2005, and 2015 and intense rainfall last November have pushed them to brace for flooding on a war footing.
The authorities are racing against time to prepare the city for the northeast monsoon, but some don’t believe that all the work will get done before the rains arrive and flooding is bound to happen.
One residential development where the roads and streets remain dry even though Chennai received intense rainfall is Hiranandani Parks at Oragadam. The 360-acre integrated and self-sustained township has a wide range of infrastructure facilities that helps them to keep the water from the streets.
Clear infrastructure planning
When Hiranandani Parks was developed, complete civic planning, according to the terrain of the township was conducted. Instead of altering the topography of the land under development, the management used the natural terrain to develop the township. This meticulous civic planning helped the township to create an infrastructure that allows proper water percolation into the drainage system.
Perfectly laid stormwater drains
Through a system of carefully planned layout, a series of stormwater drains and culverts have been installed throughout the township. The stormwater and culverts are specially designed to match the topography of the township. During the rainy season, they collect and divert the rainwater to be stored in natural water bodies located within the township. It prevents rainwater from flooding the township and keeps the environment dry, clean, and healthy.
A state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant
Hiranandani Parks has its own sewage treatment plant that treats sewage collected from households and prevents them from mixing with rainwater during the rainy season. Apart from preventing the mixing of sewage into the environment, the treated water is reused for toilet flushing, one of the household’s biggest uses of water, along with other domestic uses such as watering plants and cleaning the floors. The sludge collected during the treatment process contains a large amount of biodegradable material. This sludge when treated by the sludge-drying method and is used as a natural biodegradable fertilizer.
A modern water treatment plant
The collected rainwater is treated at the cutting-edge modern treatment plant which has the capacity to treat 2.34 MLD (Millions of liters per day), which meets the need of all the residents in the township.