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Dry lakebeds and fights for water as drought grips India’s Chennai
CHENNAI, India, June 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Angry residents fight in queues
at water taps, lakes have been turned into barren moonscapes and restaurants
are cutting back on meals as the worst drought in living memory grips India’s
Chennai.
The hunt for water in south India’s main city has become an increasingly
desperate obsession for its 10 million residents after months with virtually
no rain.
The bustling capital of Tamil Nadu state usually receives 825 million
litres of water a day, but authorities are currently only able to supply 60
percent of that.
With temperatures regularly hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit),
reservoirs have run dry and other water sources are dwindling each day.
A rainstorm on Thursday night, the first for about six months, brought
people out onto the streets to celebrate, but provided only temporary relief.
“We don’t sleep at night because we worry that this well will run out,”
said Srinivasan V., a 39-year-old electrician who starts queueing for water
before dawn in his home district near Chennai airport.
The 70 families who use the well are allowed three 25-litre pots each day.
Most pay high prices to private companies to get the extra water they need to
survive.
Local officials organise a lottery to determine who gets to the front of
the queue. The lucky first-comers get clear, fresh water. Those at the end
get an earth-coloured liquid.
– Long, hot wait –
Srinivasan said he waits about five hours each day in water queues and
spends around 2,000 rupees ($28) a month on bottled water or paying for a
tanker truck to deliver water.
It is a big chunk of his 15,000-rupee monthly salary. “I have loans,
including for the house, and I can’t repay them now,” he said.
The desperation has spilled over into clashes in Chennai. One woman who
was involved in a water dispute with neighbours was stabbed in the neck.
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In another suffering Tamil Nadu city, Thanjavur, an activist was beaten to
death by a neighbouring family after he accused them of hoarding water.
Many in Chennai do not have the money to pay for extra supplies, and
arguments in queues for free water often turn violent.
The hunt for H2O dominates daily life.
Some Chennai restaurants now serve meals in banana leaves so that they do
not have to wash plates. Others have stopped serving lunch altogether to save
water.
– Isolated showers –
Families have had to reorganise daily life, setting up schedules for
showers and devoting up to six hours a day to line up for water — three in
the morning, three in the afternoon.
Most of those queuing are women, including housewife Nagammal Mani, who
said looking for water was like “a full time job”.
“You need one person at home just to find and fill up the water while the
other person goes to work,” she said.
Chennai gets most of its water from four lakes around the city. But it had
a poor monsoon last year and levels have not recovered since.
The bones of dead fish now lie on the cracked bottoms of the lakes.
While weak rainfall is a key cause of Chennai’s crisis, experts say
India’s poor record at collecting water does not help, particularly as the
country of 1.3 billion people becomes increasingly urbanised.
The drought is seen as a symbol of the growing threat faced in many of
India’s highly vulnerable states, which have been hit by longer periods each
year of sweltering heat that has devastated food production.
Hundreds of villages have already emptied in the summer heat this year
because their wells have run dry.
Pradeep John, a local weather expert known online as “Tamil Nadu
Weatherman”, said if families in the area had spent their money on rain-
collection equipment instead of truckloads of water they would be “self-
sufficient” now.
“We’ve got almost 1,300-1,400 millimetres of rainfall every year. So that
is a very significant amount of rainfall,” he told AFP.
“So we have to find out where the problem lies, where the problem of
urbanisation lies — whether we are encroaching into the (rain) catchment
areas — improve these catchment areas, and then find a long-term solution.”
John said there is no immediate hope for rains to end the crisis, with the
monsoon not expected before October.
“If the water doesn’t come, people will be shedding blood instead of
tears,” said housewife Parvathy Ramesh, 34, as she endured her daily queue in
Chennai’s stifling heat.
BSS/AFP/HR/0955