Yet Madras and Bangalore are not just any old Indian cities. Madras is the capital of Tamil Nadu state;, it is the cultural, economic and educational center of south India and according to a 2011 census, the sixth-most populous city and comprises the fourth-most populous urban region in India.
Bangalore, a megacity with a population of over 10 million, is the IT capital of India, the capital of Karnataka state, the second fastest-growing metropolis in India, and home to one of the most highly-educated workforces in the world.
So how did so many smart people turn up brain dead when it came to supplying their city with water? Bangalore is such an attractive city for work that it developed an overpopulation crisis, which fed into if not created its water crisis, and with all the knock-on effects that make up the dreary litany of urban water crises the world over. However, the basic calamity is assuredly the same one responsible for the water crisis in Madras, and which the following report deconstructs in detail. But it boils down putting water resources way down on the to-do list.
Why Chennai’s water crisis should worry you
Citizens are paying a heavy price for reckless destruction of water bodies, poor planning
June 21, 2019
Economic Times India
Having gone without a single drop of rain for about 200 days at a stretch, Chennai finally got some rain on Thursday. But this is way too little, and way too late for a city experiencing its worst water crisis in 30 years, and headed to becoming a Zero City.
School bags have grown bigger as children carry more water bottles, and Tamil Nadu’s apple of the eye – the famed Information Technology Corridor – has been pushed to the brink. Companies have started asking employees to work from home and bring their own water. Water is rationed in residential apartments and malls are asking their water-intensive outlets to either take a break or use the blue gold frugally.
Pipe-water supply to homes is not even 10% of what it used to be, and wait for a Metrowater tanker is as much as three to four weeks now. One does not know where the next pot of water will come from. It is that bad.
[...]
Chennai is today paying the price for its downright disrespect for waterbodies and water sources. Chennai and its two neighbouring districts – Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur – together used to be called ‘Yeri (lake) districts’. They had more than 6,000 lakes, ponds and reservoirs that minimised run-off loss of rainwater and kept replenishing the groundwater table throughout the year. At present, authorities say only 3,896 have survived and Chennai city alone has lost nearly 150 such water bodies.
Further, whatever survived is nowhere near its actual size. Canals and supply routes have all disappeared while successive governments promoted housing projects called ‘Yeri schemes’ to convert water bodies into residential plots and apartments to house the city’s burgeoning population.
[...]
Policy paralysis for decades on the water front is to blame. For instance, the government opened the IT Corridor and showered builders and IT companies with floor space benefits, but no thought was given to the source of water for drinking and regular use.
Today, the IT Corridor has at least 150 mega structures owned by 650 big companies that employ 3.2 lakh people. Besides, there are more than 12.5 lakh residents, too. But they have no piped water supply and borewells are of no use as the clayey soil yields highly saline and soapy water.
Their sole source of water is private tankers that [are] used to recklessly plunder farm wells located a short distance away.
[...]I think it was in 2014 or 2015 that I took the unprecedented step of addressing a Pundita post directly to readers in India. I warned in the strongest possible terms that they had to put everything else aside and focus on dealing with the country's looming water crisis. The answer I got was the chirping of crickets, although one reader, who only later appreciated the scope and seriousness of the crisis, did ask whether I had a particular reason for addressing Indians.
The reason is in today's headlines out of South India.
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