Chennai water crisis: City's reservoirs run dry

[Recursion]

Last edited Thu Jun 20, 2019, 07:17 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48672330

This on top of 100+ degree heat

(Chennai is a city in southeast India; you may have known it as "Madras" growing up)

The acute water shortage has forced the city to scramble for urgent solutions, including drilling new boreholes.

Residents have had to stand in line for hours to get water from government tanks, and restaurants have closed due to the lack of water.

...

The situation has also prompted clashes to break out between residents. Last week, police arrested a man for stabbing his neighbour during a fight over water-sharing in the neighbourhood.

Officials are trying to find alternative sources of water, with the city's water department starting to identify and extract water from quarries.

Note about the restaurants closing: a lot of cheaper apartments in Chennai don't have kitchens.

[Ilsa]

1. This is in India for anyone

unfamiliar with international cities, like me.

[democratisphere]

2. Thanks Ilsa.

I was wondering the same.

[Recursion]

6. Sorry, editing

You may have known it as "Madras" growing up

[JI7]

3. no need to worry, they are on top of dealing with this crisis

:large

[Recursion]

7. Thoughts and pujas?

Well, as usual there's no problem the BJP won't cynically and pointlessly exploit.

[procon]

4. Many ancient cities were abandoned

a the population was forced to flee in search of water.

Since the water shortage was a known problem of long duration, why didn't the city authorities act sooner?

[JI7]

5. they did, see my post above

[Recursion]

8. So, they did institute water restrictions earlier this year

The problem is about 2/3rds of the houses in the city with running water have illegal unmetered hookups; same with the power grid. And the public pumps that most people use (they stick up out of the sidewalk) can only be "on" or "off"; you can't control how much water people use once they're on.

Finally, things are usually touch-and-go towards the end of June before the Southwest monsoon hits, but in recent years that date has varied wildly (thanks, climate change!) so it's harder to plan around.

[procon]

9. That's what I was referring to.

All their probs were well known and posed long standing difficilties. Climate change makes their traditional water supply unreliable and yet they are only now getting around to drilling new water wells.

I suspect it all comes down to a lack of money available for major infrastructure projects in an impoverished area. At the same time, city officials also lost revenues by not stepping up code enforcement to stop the illegal theft of water and shut down profiteering from private water resellers.

[malaise]

10. One of our neighbors is from Chennai

He said it is horrific for his aging parents