Chennai is facing a severe water crisis, emergency measures are taken to ensure even basic drinking water for residents.
Chennai is the worst-affected city among 400 cities across the world as per the global research.
- The southern Indian city of Chennai is in crisis after the four main water reservoirs ran completely dry.
- The acute water shortage has forced the city to scramble for urgent solutions and residents have to stand in line for hours to get water from government tanks.
- With the depletion in the water levels, hotels and restaurants started to shut down temporarily.
- While officials in the city are still trying to find alternative sources of water, the community continues to pray for rain.
- The water shortage is a result of mismanagement of river systems and shrinking of wetlands, which are being lost at thrice the rate of forests.
Kolkata suffering from water mismanagement
The loss of wetlands, especially in a city such as Kolkata, and the looming crisis of floods and depleting water sources are the factors why Kolkata ranks at number 2 in the cities facing the most severe water scarcity and drought.
The world has lost 35% of its wetlands since 1970 and is losing them three times faster than forests.
Drought to flooding are the front edge of climate change
While stories of the severe water crisis in Indian cities have become routine every summer but according to NITI Aayog’s 2018 Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report says that this crisis will only worsen.
It is stated that 600 million people in India live in high to extreme water stress and clearly the strained water supply system is susceptible to collapse.
