Chennai - The Water Crisis

CHENNAI REELS UNDER WATER CRISIS.

CHENNAI RUNS OUT OF WATER, 9 MILLION PRAY FOR MONSOON.

Aren’t these headlines ruling every newspaper and media channel and of course your social media accounts?

But here are some facts about the situation that might worry you:-

Chennai is dealing with one of the most worst crisis in 30 years- it has run out of water. People are going without a single drop of water for a stretch of 200 days. The reserves have dried too.

So now the question arises when the problem got this bigger and how did it come to this ?

Chennai's four major reservoirs, which have been the sources of water for the city, have dried up, to the extent that they do not hold even one percent of their capacity (in other words dipping below zero level).

Kuddos to us as well because urbanisation and industrialisation has put cherry on the cake as successive governments, the report states, have gone on to build highways, residential complexes and roads by converting water bodies. In addition, we blindly disposed the sewage waste and garbage inside canals, rivers and lakes in the city over the grass.

Now, the only day of hope is 'monsoon' but sadly the city has not seen rains for 200 days at a stretch and according to reports, monsoon is not expected to bless the city for another 3 months.

So how are the residents of Chennai dealing with this problem?

The residents are managing this situation through government provided water tankers but the situation is this worse that they have to wait for 3 days and hours in queues to get even a single bucket of water.

Money can buy you everything, they were right in saying so because right now it can even buy you survival in the form of water which equals happiness to many people.

Drinking water is also rationed in some restaurants and hotels, according to reports. Chennai's metro system has stopped using air conditioning at its stations. Public toilets in places such as malls have also reportedly stopped functioning. According to the ET report, the policy of compulsorily installing rainwater structures in every building is helping the city to cope up with the crisis to an extent.

What steps has government taken to cope up with the situation?

Predictably, political parties in the state have raked up the issue to point towards the failure of the government and indulge in blame game.

Some of them are :-

1) The state government has also accepted Kerala's offer to provide 20 lakh litres of water per day.

2) Authorities have decided to approach Andhra Pradesh for seeking its share of water from the Krishna river.

3)The state government announced a 220-km train that would run from Jolarpettai to Chennai carrying water every day.

And the situation has gone beyond our control as, According to Drought Early Warning system, more than 42% of India is abnormally dry and this is 6% higher than the last year.

The clock is ticking. It is the beginning of the end of the world. And if it continues this way it is going to be deadly for the survival of next generation.

It's time to sneak out. It's time to act.