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.

Location

Chennai

Year

2018-Present

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)

Status

Ongoing

Recent news

Mar '24 Henk Ovink talks about the work of OOZE at the IN FOCUS : RESEARCH by the WORLD AROUND & DESIGN MUSEUM , London

Feb '24 Published in The Norman Foster Foundation Press ‘On Climate Crisis -Volume III'

Dec '23 Open Space Coalitions by Architecture Workroom, Brussels

Nov '23 Keynote Speaker at Living Cities Forum Melbourne 2023, “Infrastructures of Life”

Sep '23 Farewell Event for Henk Ovink from his position as the Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Rptterdam

Publications

Feb '24 The Norman Foster Foundation Press ‘On Climate Crisis -Volume III'

Mar '20 DOMUS

Jan '20 The Materials Book

Dec '19 A/D/O Water Futures Catalogue

Jul '19 An Urgent Need To Rescue Mylapore

share on:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

City of 1,000 Tanks, a vision © Ooze

Proposed intervention in the historic neighbourhood of Mylapore © Ooze

Holistic strategy applying an array of Nature Based Solutions in the city © Ooze

Renatured canal of the Mambalam Flagship project in summer and monsoon © Ooze

The transformed streets in the Mylapore Flagship Project in summer and monsoon © Ooze

Dyanmic detention tanks of the Chitra Nagar Flagship Project in summer and monsoon © Ooze

Chitra Nagar before and after the intervention using NBS © Ooze

Results of Focus Group Discussions in Chitra Nagar, March 2019

Cultivating abundance as a mindset © Ooze

Henk Ovink with Mr, Harmander Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply, GoTN © WaL | Cynthia van Elk

Eva Pfannes (OOZE), Jayshree Vencatesan (Care Earth Trust) and Hans Gehrels (Deltares) with Mr. Govinda Rao, IAS (Deputy Commissioner-Greater Chennai Corporation) © WaL | Cynthia van Elk

Begbroke Innovation District

LEAP - Local Energy Action Plan, Rotterdam

City of 1,000 Tanks, Chennai

Água Carioca, Rio de Janeiro

Água Paulista, São Paulo

Every Other Street, New York

SMAAKSTAAT, North Brabant

Aalto University Campus, Helsinki

Coal Lake City, Ruhr Region

Forest Life, Hyderabad

Glacier Vegetal, Geneva

Land of Beacons, Ymuiden

City of 1,000 Tanks, Chennai
Holistic urban strategy to combat floods, droughts and pollution through blue-green strategies

City of 1,000 Tanks, Chennai Holistic urban strategy to combat floods, droughts and pollution through blue-green strategies

City of 1,000 Tanks, Chennai
Holistic urban strategy to combat floods, droughts and pollution through blue-green strategies