Chennai, the capital city and heartthrob of Tamil Nadu observed ZERO DAY on 19th June, 2019 when there was no water left in all the four reservoir tanks built in the city. Chennai is a city located on southeast coast of India serving as a gateway to the magnificent South India with the Bay of Bengal surrounding it on one side, the city is intersected by three rivers. How come that the city which has “abundant of water bodies” becomes dry. Read this blog to know how the water crisis in Chennai is a result of man’s selfish actions and is a warning giving a hint of what the nature holds for us in future if we degrade it.
Causes of water scarcity in Chennai
Chennai is situated on the south east coast of India and receives majority of its rain during winters because being situated on the south east coast, it lies on the leeward side of the Western Ghats preventing the south west monsoon winds which originates in the Arabian sea on the west coast of India to shed its rain there during summers when generally rest of the country experiences monsoon. Thus it gets majority of its rain from retreating southwest monsoon winds and northeast winds during the months of December and January. The rest of the months the city has to rely on occasional rains and mainly on the reserved water which is scarce in Chennai.
Owing to Urbanisation and construction on the bodies which once were the catchment and flood relief basins, the space required to hold the rains is now blocked. The very suitable example being the very famous IT corridor of Chennai which is built on 230 square kilometers of marshland , has reduced the area of the places to hold the precipitation which occurs during its monsoon. Moreover with the rise in the number of Industries , the water bodies in Chennai are highly polluted. Though the industrialization resulted in Chennai being called “The Deteroit of India” due to the vast automobile sector established there housing the scions such as the Tata motors, the neglection of the authorities in maintaining the precious water bodies resulted to Chennai experiencing the ZERO DAY.
Chennai receives rain on an average of 54 days per year with a minimum average of 140 centimeters of rainfall which is enough for the survival if the water is properly harvested but it is the inability to collect and reserve the rain water which led to the MAN MADE water crisis. Between 1893 and 2017 the area covered by the water bodies is reduced from 12.6 square kilometers to 3.2 square kilometers. As reported by The Diplomat, NITI Aayog predicted in June that 21 Indian cities would run out of groundwater in 2020. A report by the London-based risk analytics firm Verisk Maplecroft named Chennai as facing an “extreme risk” of water stress, saying its present crisis “could be the new normal for tens of millions of people” in India’s urban centers.
Since there is no enough reserved water for the heat days which comes in June and the water remaining in the water bodies is either too saline or too polluted to be fit for use, Chennai has to rely on the tanks which carry water from hundreds of kilometers far away to satisfy its water needs. As suggested by the various reports , there is 85 percent decline in Chennai’s groundwater levels.
Actions taken by the Government to prevent
- Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi Palaniswami , after that dreadful day in June 2019, announced a public program including maximum participation of women covering everything from rainwater harvesting to water saving and recycling to the protection of water bodies and a massive study on how to clean the polluted rivers. Until the research and the plan is completed , the government decided the construction of desalination plants in the city which though costly will help in a great way to solve Chennai’s water problems until the natural water bodies are restored, by desalining the sea water making it fit for domestic and industrial use. The plan is however still in the initial process as there are many protests regarding how it will cause environmental damages and intense loss to the local fisheries.
- The past always comes to the rescue. Supported by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Dutch Government , the Greater Chennai Corporation has started an initiative called “the city of 1000 tanks” which aims at restoring the tanks near the temples and making it the reservoirs for storing the rain water just like in the past and building new tanks too surrounded by green slopes to help catch the rainwater and increase the groundwater level.
The state of Tamil Nadu of which Chennai is the capital has predicted in its climate action plan that the annual temperature of the city will raise by 3.1 degree celsius by 2100 from its original level of what it was in 1983 and 2000s with the annual rainfall falling by 9%.Further , the little rainfall which the city experience in June and September which was enough to refill the reservoirs and maintain the growth of crops will decrease while the winter rainfall will increase causing more floods and droughts.
The condition which Chennai is facing can be taken as a threat issued by nature to not degrade it else the consequences can be severe. The day is not too far when the rest of the world may also experience what Chennai is , if the present practice continues and that day will lead to our downfall.
Eduindex News 