Rise Chennai

Within Chennai city the project proposal from Deltares included the following components:

Muthucharam Mambalam

The current Mambalam drain is the last physical remnant of a former reservoir tank, and one of the few remaining traces of the city's original tank waterscape within the city's centre. By turning it from a stagnant, seasonal, drain into a flowing, perennial, canal, Deltares believes it carries the potential to become a thriving and central part of the city. The project Deltares proposed for the Mambalam canal aims to improve the resilience of Chennai's water network by opening up and redesigning the canal profile, its bridges and surrounding urban developments; mitigating flood risk, improving water quality, groundwater recharge, waste management and reducing water use.

Neithal Muttukadu

The Muttukadu basin is a fast-developing area on Chennai's southern edge. The project aims at reconnecting fishery-based livelihoods with economic opportunities tied to the revitalisation of green and blue infrastructures. Starting with the degraded forest lands further inland, and building on the presence of erys (water tanks) in the perimeter of the business area nearby (SIPCOT, a Specialised Economic Zone), the project introduces water harvesting measures in order to close the water cycle locally. This revitalised waterscape then acts as a catalyst to clean up the canal, re-naturalise its banks, restore backwater sloughs, integrate decentralised wastewater treatment, and ultimately create a new vital ecology based on ecotourism that links the basin’s mouth back to the forest lands on higher ground. Nature-based sand nourishments protect the coast near the basin’s mouth and that of businesses, residents and ecologies inside.

Other local partners: Benthem Crouwel Architects, Care Earth Trust, Indian Institute for Technology Madras, Indo-German centre for sustainability, KarlBeelen, Periurban Initiative, VanderSat, Wagonner & Ball, Arcadis.