TN water crisis leads to deadly clashes
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government, struggling with a water crisis of unprecedented gravity, has moved to take up a traditional water body restoration scheme worth around Rs5 billion in the current financial year. This scheme could improve the groundwater table in 29 districts, the Anna DMK government led by Edappadi Palaniswami says.
The move comes as deadly violence erupted in several parts of the state over disputes for drinking water. At least one man’s death has been reported from the clashes, while a woman was seriously injured in a stabbing incident in the metro city.
Police confirmed that a 33-year-old social activist, Anand Babu, was beaten to death by his neighbours for objecting to their atempt to store a large quantity of water.
The Chennai metro water authority is on the lookout for people who steal water. They have disconnected water connection to several houses in the last two weeks for illegally drawing water from water pipes using high-power suction motors.
Several eateries in Chennai have reduced operational hours. Many IT firms have reportedly told their workers to work from home.
TN Hariharan, managing director of Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board, however, played down the crisis as he spoke to the media. He claimed that the situation is not as alarming as being projected. He said the regular supply of water from Chennai metro water was 830 million litres a day (MLD). It has come down to 525 MLD now. Usual water sources such as Red Hills, Sholavaram and Chemabarambakkam lakes have fully dried up.
“But we are maintaining supply with the help of other sources, we will be able to manage the crisis until November,” he said. His hope is that a single spell of rain can “recharge and revive” groundwater tables. It hasn’t rained in Tamil Nadu for well over 200 days. Chennai’s groundwater is entirely depleted, drying up its borewells.
The city and several other parts of north Tamil Nadu have been reeling under heatwave or severe heatwave conditions this summer. the Regional Meteorological Centre said on Sunday that “severe heat wave” condition was likely to prevail over pockets in Tiruvallur, Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts while parts of nine other districts, including Chennai, Kancheepuram and Cuddalore, would witness heat wave.
The Chembarambakkam lake, according to data updated daily on the Chennai Metro board’s official website, has just one million cubic feet of water let while its full storage capacity is 3,645 million cubic feet of water.