For sure, the recent news
headlines about Chennai are on expected lines.
- Chennai
faces worst water crisis; tanker prices soar
- Water Woes:
Parched Chennai cries for relief
- Drinking,
bathing becomes luxury in Chennai as water crisis grips city
-
Water-starved Chennai IT corridor turns to BYOP (bring your own plates) and
BYOD (bring your own devices) to tackle the (water) crisis
- Chennai: No
water, work from home, IT firms tell staff
- Chennai
hotels, hospitals hit hard by water crisis
- Man attacks
woman with knife over water dispute in Chennai, arrested
- Madras HC
(High Court) seeks report from Tamil Nadu government over water crisis in
Chennai
The house that my
parents constructed in Chennai in the mid 1960s was almost on the border of the
then Chennai City but now is almost the heart of it. Our plot was cut out of a 11 ½ acre coconut grove with over
a thousand trees. After laying out some 92 plots, with roads cut in between,
each plot got an average of six to eight coconut trees. Initially, for at least about four to five years, there were only a couple of houses in the entire colony and I thoroughly enjoyed
the abundance of the greenery the colony afforded both by the coconut fronds as
well as the grass underneath.
Today, in the entire
colony there might not be six to eight coconut trees. That is ‘development’ for
you. Whenever a new construction used to take place, my father used to go and
plead with the owners / promoters to leave some land uncovered from concrete.
He was more often laughed at and taken in as a raving old man. He used to argue
that we should allow the earth to absorb water from the rains. No, sir, many would
not listen, as for them it is dirty to walk on the raw earth. We need to be on
the concrete and we need our vehicles to be on the concrete. Our feet cannot
get dirty. Period!
In our own house, we used to brush and wash near some plant so that the water goes to the plant and not wasted. My father and I used to bathe nearer the well and the water is channeled to the coconut, mango, guava and sapota (chiku) trees. Only womenfolk in the family used to take their bath in the bathroom and even that water was channelled towards the papaya and other plants. Virtually not a drop used to be wasted.
In our own house, we used to brush and wash near some plant so that the water goes to the plant and not wasted. My father and I used to bathe nearer the well and the water is channeled to the coconut, mango, guava and sapota (chiku) trees. Only womenfolk in the family used to take their bath in the bathroom and even that water was channelled towards the papaya and other plants. Virtually not a drop used to be wasted.
And now, we are
willing to squeeze water out of this dirt for survival and do not mind the source of water, really.
I am sure that my
beloved dad, who is no more, is having the last laugh, from wherever he is.
Yes, now Chennai is
staring at such an acute water shortage which I haven’t witnessed in my six
decade plus life.
Yet my worry doesn’t
stop with the present water scarcity but with the future of the sewerage in the
city. The human wastes have to be kept flowing through the underground sewerage
and flowing cannot happen without water. If at a point of time, due to the scarcity
of water, the flow stops, we are going to face clogged and 'concrete' drains
very soon in the city which could create havoc with the health of the citizens
leading to endemic and / or epidemic issues.
And what about the
poor dumb animals? To whom will they call out their predicament?
Coming back to the
issue on hand, the present Chennai water crisis teaches us four lessons;
(i) Whatever
diamonds, platinum, gold, silver and other precious wealth items we may
accumulate, we still cannot eat or drink them
(2) Prudence
does not seem to be our virtue
(3) Not much
of evidence seems to be forthcoming on the preparations being made by the
government to really face, combat and contain the exigency and
(4) We haven’t
really learnt our lessons from the nature and continue to be irresponsible.
During the first
week of December 2015, Chennai, along with several other places of Tamil Nadu
and Andhra Pradesh saw an unprecedented amount of heavy rainfall generated by
the annual north-east monsoon, affecting most of the Coromandel Coastal region.
“Though the
unusually heavy rainfall in southern India during the winter of 2015 has been
attributed to the 2014–16 El Niño event, in July 2018 the Comptroller and
Auditor General of India (CAG) categorised the flooding across Tamil Nadu as
a ‘man-made disaster,’ and held the Government of Tamil
Nadu responsible for the scale of the catastrophe, which the latter had
termed a natural disaster” (Verbatim Info Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_South_Indian_floods).
The flooding of
Adyar River and the Cooum River in Chennai took the entire rain water to the
sea.
In the year that
followed, we had the very severe cyclonic storm Vardah crossing the eastern
coast of India close to Chennai in the afternoon hours of 12th December,
2016 causing extensive damage to roads, supplies and power infrastructure.
The most important
point to be noted is that this Cyclone also brought torrential rain, but again
the water could not be contained in the catchment areas rendering the city
water-starved within about a month after the cyclone affecting the city.
We are now in 2019
which means we had at least two full years of time to be more prepared like
de-silting, deepening and expanding the catchment areas, lakes and ponds
ensuring right utilisation of rivers and waterways.
And the last few
months would have been more ideal for such activities with very little water in
the reservoirs.
But then except for
activities and initiatives undertaken by NGOs and individuals or CSR work by
some organisations like Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), no further serious prudential action appears to have been taken, for being prepared to
face the imminent water scarcity.
Historically,
excepting for continuing pro-longed arguments with neighbouring states for
water, very little action seems to have been taken by successive governments in
making the state, ‘water-contained’ and ‘water-disciplined’.
We do not hear of much work done on dams or developing/maintaining the water
infrastructure in the state in comparison with some of the neighbouring states.
Of course, after the
2015 floods in Chennai and 2016 Vardah cyclone, some noise has been made on
removing encroachments from water bodies but really how prepared were people or
its representatives in really facing a water emergency such as now is anybody’s
guess!
Presently, the
government tried and is still trying to arrange water from alternative sources
like water stored in reservoirs created by stone quarrying, and supplemented to
whatever extent possible from schemes like the 'Telugu Ganga' etc. To be fair to
the government, it has also been trying to source water through tanks from
other reservoirs in the state which might be having some water left out and
whatever other sources are available. But these are more like sops than
permanent solutions, which are needed and looked up to, by the people.
Apparently, the
government fee / charges for a tanker truck that supplies water are some Rs.700
per tanker truck, but the waiting could be as long as 20 days and chances of
your booking getting cancelled automatically (like the 'time-out' that happens
with apps and phone banking etc.) mid-way are quite high and happening.
The private tanker
trucks charge anything between Rs.2,500 to Rs.3,500 and on some occasions even
higher, depending on the need / demand but then, even this supply is not
guaranteed.
So an average family
is spending anything from Rs.2,000 to Rs.5,000 both for bubble packed water
(for cooking and drinking) and tanker water for washing and ablutions.
What happens to the
hapless and poor people who cannot afford such high costs with their meager
incomes?
Yet, how are people sourcing water for functions and celebrations like weddings? It is a puzzle!
Is it not the
responsibility of a government to provide succour? Why can’t they be better
prepared and plan for contingencies like this, is what people are wondering at?
Industries should have been decentralised across the state, to reduce internal
migration and pressure on one or few single cities. Tamil Nadu, to a good
extent did this but perhaps this is not enough? But the most important point to
be noted is that development should have been in consonance with need and not
with greed!
Will they start
acting after the cities become deserted? Even if people have to desert where
will they go? Other neighbouring cities are not doing great either.
This reminds of an
anecdote.
I used to work for a
nationally reputed Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company. Our Sales
Manager-South used to have his own way of motivating his staff.
Once, a particular
detergent brand of ours was not moving in the market as he would have liked to.
At that time, our nearest competitors, including a Multi-National and an Indian
century old traditional business house, were on strike and their products were
not available.
So, an internal
circular from our sales manager, to his sales staff, went something like this
(I am writing not from verbatim but from memory) “Our factories are producing
to capacity. Stocks are available with all depots and stockists. Our
competitors are suffering from workmen strikes. So when do you plan to sell our
product? Do you expect the people to come into shops and stand in queues to buy
our brand of detergent?”
Similarly does the
government expect people to migrate or murder each other for water before
bringing their act together and become pro-actively responsible? And mass
migration would leave the houses unattended and could easily become prey for
criminal activities.
The answer to be
given to High Court should be an interesting read when ultimately that happens.
Meantime, should we,
the people, look towards the skies, keep praying while increasing the sales of
the talcum powder, perfumes and disposable tissues (we can’t use sand for the
purpose like they do in deserts, as, much usable sand apparently has already
been quarried off ill/legally) to be used in lieu of water to bathe and for
ablutions?
Well, folks, what do
you think? Please, do tell me!
Till then,
Krutagjnatalu
(Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam),
Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad
(Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon
(Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya
(Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai
(Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai),Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat
(Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish),Fa'afetai
(Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (TokPisin of Papua New
Guinea).
Hemantha Kumar
Pamarthy
Chennai, India
