Water scarcity is fast becoming urban India’s number one woe, with government’s own data revealing that residents in 22 out of 32 major cities have to deal with daily shortages.
Drought-hit Chennai has 1.3% of water in its reservoirs, one of the lowest in 70 yrs
This is the fifth lowest quantity of water recorded in the last 74 years.
Chennai is battling one of its worst water crisis in nearly 75 years. As the returning monsoon missed this part of the earth in November-December 2018, causing severe drought-like conditions, increasing water use and misuse by the coastal metropolis has raised questions on water sustainability and the city's resilience.
The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) started rationing in January this year due to severe water shortage. This resulted in bringing down the total daily supply to 550 million litres per day (mld). The demand for water in Chennai is about 1,200 million litres per day (mld).
During best of times, CMWSSB supplies about 830 mld. Media reports claimed that by June, the city will not get any water from its three principal sources — Red Hills lake, Poondi reservoir and Cholavaram lake.
From May 15, CMWSSB stopped drawing water from the Red Hills lake, which supplies 90-120 mld for the city. Local residents are having a tough time in the absence of adequate water supply.
Real estate developers have stopped construction work in major parts of the city due to water crisis. Hotels have cut down the number of working hours and said they will not provide thali (meals) as it uses up more water. For a 100 seat restaurant, 12,000 litres of water is used up every day, said M. Ravi, president of the Chennai Hotel Owners’ Association.
Residents from prime localities like Triplicane, Alwarpet and Mylapore have started shifting homes in search of water.
Rainwater harvesting pioneer and Chennai’s ‘rain man’ Shekhar Raghavan blamed the present scarcity on the failure of monsoon last year. The northeast monsoon has been deficient by nearly 50 per cent.
In this backdrop, it is important to note that Chennai has been a pioneer in rain water harvesting. As early as 2001, the building rules were changed making rain water harvesting structures compulsory. Ever since, for any new building to get plan approval it has to have a rainwater harvesting structure.
The dispute over sharing water from the Cauvery river between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has further added to the distress. “Water has been a sensitive issue and nobody wants to share water with the other state. Demand keeps increasing all the time and source is dwindling. A state needs to become self-sufficient and not depend on others,” added Raghavan.
Reference: TOI, DTE, IH, TNM
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