The renowned Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar who composed Tirukkural almost 2000 years ago said, “Neer Indri Amaiyathu Ulagu.’ It means, “Without water, the world cannot sustain. It is an elixir of life!”
The Detroit of India and India’s sixth largest city has become all the more famous in the recent days but this time, for a worrying reason. Chennai is facing an acute water shortage that has left the world gaping! While the rich can pay to satisfy their need for water, it is the poor and the slum dwellers who are facing the greatest burden of paying for their needs. There is a huge level of disparity when it comes to access to a water supply.
Images of people, especially women, lined up in long queues with colourful pitchers and buckets are a common sight now. Restaurants and hotels are closing down; people are being asked to work from home in order to save water. The situation is comparable to the ‘Zero-day’ of Cape Town, South Africa from last year. This couldn’t even stop Lionardo di Caprio from commenting that it is only rain that could save Chennai from a further water crisis.
In December 2015, Chennai was in the news for facing one of the worst floods in the country. It claimed hundreds of lives with massive destruction of property. Many experts said that the floods in Chennai were man-made, mostly because people have carried out the construction of houses and buildings on lakes. In less than three years, in the summer of 2019, it is facing an unimaginable water crisis. I guess we forget very fast and are least bothered by the climate extremes that are happening right in front of us. Unfortunately, the time is slipping away!
But Why Did Chennai Fail?
Chennai has three main rivers, namely Cooum/Koovam River (72 Km), Adyar river (42.5 Km) and Kosasthalaiyar river (136 Km) and all of them drain into the Bay of Bengal. They are highly polluted and are almost dead as the city’s untreated sewage goes into these rivers. People say that if you take a flight to Chennai, just before approaching the airport, one can easily get the aerial view of the Adyar river which looks like nothing but a drain, absolutely black! All of these rivers further flow into the famous Buckingham Canal which was built by the British. It is the same canal which is National Waterway 4 (NW 4) and was hugely responsible for mitigating the effects of the 2004 Tsunami, thereby saving the lives of several fishermen. The canal all along the coast was filled with tsunami water, which overflowed at a few places and receded back to sea within 10-15 minutes.
Within the city of Chennai, there is pollution from sewage and industrial effluents. The problem of silting has left the water stagnant, creating an attractive habitat for malaria-spreading mosquitoes. Also, the thermal power plants located nearby discharge hot water and fly ash into the canal. Discharge of such hot water from industries increases the BOD levels and decreases the dissolved oxygen levels, further causing a threat to the aquatic life. In an ideal scenario, for a water body to be healthy, the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels should be high. It should always be greater than 4 mg/L, along with cool temperature conditions. (Higher the DO levels, better are the conditions of the river.) Generally speaking, hot water conditions (arising mostly out of anthropogenic activities) are one of the first signs for a water body to be polluted!
Hence, Chennai now mostly depends on its lakes for water. The four primary reservoirs are – Puzhal, Chembarambakkam, Cholavaram and Poondi.
The aerial photograph of Lake Puzhal getting dry in just one year has been doing the rounds on the internet for the past few days. All this has happened despite having a legal provision for Rainwater Harvesting already in place, meaning it is compulsory for residential colonies, corporations, schools, colleges, etc. to harvest Rainwater. The city receives its major rainfall from the Northeast Monsoons or the season of Retreating Monsoon from the period of October-December when a situation of high pressure is created in parts of northern India. The following map makes it clear:
NE Monsoon. (For representation only)
But last year there was a failure of NE monsoons, a major reason for the decrease in the water levels. On top of that, a heat wave is making major parts of not just Chennai but most of the world today, parched!
Tamil Nadu makes headlines regularly with the Cauvery river dispute with its neighbouring state of Karnataka. Karnataka is an upper riparian state and Tamil Nadu is a lower riparian state. Water is a state subject with very little interference from the central government. Yet, Article 262 of the Constitution of India provides the adjudication of inter-state water disputes. Under this provision, two laws have been enacted:
- The River Boards Act (1956)
- Inter-State Water Disputes Act (1956)
A total of 8 Inter-state water dispute tribunals have been set up so far. It is always the lower riparian state which bears the brunt of water woes!
Think of India and Bangladesh. There are 54 rivers shared between these two countries. Teesta river dispute between the two countries is a famous case. Bangladesh, in addition, has problems of an ever-increasing population, a crunch of resources and is a country which is extremely prone to cyclones and floods.
Bhutan has the greatest potential for hydroelectricity. Here, India is a lower riparian state. Areas adjoining India and Bhutan are seismically active. Just imagine if there is a human error or even a natural disaster that leads to a dam break. It will cause extreme devastation in the downstream areas. I am sure many of us have watched the famous Ted Talk by former Bhutanese PM Tshering Tobgay who focused primarily on how Bhutan is trying hard to be not Carbon neutral but carbon negative!
Likewise, the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is said to be one of the most successful treaties in the world, yet in the recent past, it has been in the news for many disturbing reasons, further escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. Pakistan here is a lower riparian state! So as a South Asian big brother, India has a greater role and responsibility to play. It has now become easier for us to make influential, bigger and better decisions for humanity because the world is listening to us, watching us!
A year ago, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India submitted a performance audit report of flood management efforts in Chennai. The audit also covered water storage efforts. It had the following conclusion: “Projects to restore and increase the storage capacities of the tanks and reservoirs suffered setbacks due to faulty planning and lack of coordination between government agencies”. The latest report by NITI Aayog states that by 2020, 21 Indian cities will be reeling under a major acute water crisis. We should be scared! We should start treating water as an economic good and induce behavioural changes before it is too late. There are ample solutions available at the macro level, but solutions should also be implemented at the micro level and at an individual level!
There were signs right in front of us, yet we were not able to identify. Two months ahead of the Chennai water crisis, in April 2019, an old school friend of mine had come up with a noble concept of raising awareness on various issues plaguing our society today. He and his team started a YouTube channel and featured me in their very first episode. Little did we know that the water crisis would be making such huge headlines today. I guess we started on a good note. Here is the video where I talk about issues related to water and suggest a few solutions to tackle the same!
