
Chennai, India's sixth biggest city, has a water crisis - GordonS
https://earther.gizmodo.com/why-chennai-indias-sixth-biggest-city-has-run-out-of-1835736767
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ramraj07
After spending my first summer in Chennai this time after a decade living in
the states, I wanted to point out some things:

1\. Water crisis is bad but a good fraction of people (most of the upper and
middle class) are getting by through exploitation of ground water. My guess
would be half of the city still has usable ground water accessible through
bore wells including where I live. However these Wells going dry is a common
occurence. Someone is digging a deeper well every day in my street alone (no
exaggeration). Heck, my house with 4 tenants is already exhausting it's 5th
borewell. The day these Wells collectively stop giving water is when things
are going to get very interesting.

2\. The government here doesn't really consider water as an utility it's
actually responsible for. All the articles you see are mostly talking about
_drinking_ water. The pipe system in the city is barely capable of only
providing drinking water to most people even if most of the water sources are
full. It is everyone's assumption that if you need more than a few tens of
liters per day per person for things like showers that's completely on you,
not the government. This is not going to change anytime soon. The entire
plumbing system is riddled with leaks everywhere and no metering. People have
also built systems to abuse this plumbing (by using motors) so unless we get a
sudden abundance of water this system cannot provide the water the city needs.

3\. Most importantly, if ground water runs out, the city really doesn't have
any alternative for water in any developed country sense. No usable River for
hundreds of miles and every river that CAN provide water originates in a
different state and none of them are prepared to share their resources.

4\. Chennai the city alone has more people than most Scandinavian countries.
The desalination plants are not going to provide more than a few tens of
liters per head even if their capacity multiplies by ten.

5\. While there's always blame on people here for wasting water, I'd argue
that it's outrageous. Even the worst offenders don't waste that much water
compared to any Western standards. My household is definitely in the lower
quartiles of how much water we use but I estimate we use at best 50-70 liters
of water per head per day including everything. Even if I don't want to think
like this, I subconsciously think twice before using the toilet (maybe if I
hold it for a while I can go one less time?). People here should not be blamed
for abusing water, water should be a basic necessity for our lives.

6\. Just three years back this city literally drowned in a flood that was far
worse than what happened in Houston.

~~~
anovikov
Of course i have absolutely no idea of the real situation, but why the Palar
river isn't usable? Of course water from there will require proper
treatment/cleaning, but still? Not trying to argue, ofc you know what you are
talking about, just to get a piece of education.

Let me guess, there are bacteria in it's water which are too hard to filter
out/kill?

~~~
_pythonlover_
It's not usable because the sand has been mined by the sand mafia for more
than two decades. I'm from that area and I've seen thousands of trucks
carrying sands every day. And the river is continuously being polluted by
industries. It'll take immense effort from the government to make it usable.

One district collector (Irayanbu) tried to fight the sand mafia but he was
transferred soon after.

~~~
bogomipz
Could you elaborate on what the "sand mafia" is and how it has affected the
potability of this water source?

------
pergadad
My main memory of Chennai (formerly called Madras) was the awfully dirty
waterways in the city. I think it used to be a river but was when I visited in
the 2000s basically a gigantic trashdump, smelly and rotting and probably
spreading all sorts of disease. Utter and complete mismanagement by the city
authorities and of course high disrespect by many of the local population for
their lifeline. This is how waterways used to look in 18-1950 in Europe, with
the added issue of plastic and electronic waste and of course much higher
popolulation density.

~~~
ignoramous
This one:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooum_River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooum_River)

There's also an effort to clean it that has gotten no where due to, well,
corruption and negligence of the officials.

------
ignoramous
India needs tougher water recycling laws like Portugal or Israel. It also
needs to illegalize bore wells, whilst also needing a better way to preserve
its rivers and harvesting the rain water.

Madras isn't the only city on the brink, every major metro in India is at risk
but like the proverbial frog in boiling water, the law makers are asleep at
the wheel. Or, may be, they are simply disconnected from reality as they can
personally afford solutions to problems (owing to their vast resources) that
most of the population can't.

~~~
distant_hat
The law makers aren't asleep at the wheel, they are actively profiting from
the crisis. The water tankers are run by local politicians and they make a lot
of money from this scarcity. In Bangalore they actively sabotage water supply
pipes so that you are forced to purchase water from the tanker mafia.

------
primitivesuave
My dad grew up poor in Chennai before immigrating to the US, and all of his
horror stories revolve around the failing/nonexistent infrastructure.
According to relatives who still live there, it is now a common practice in
Chennai to have variable pricing based on the cleanliness of the water - you
can get a 20-50% discount if you're willing to accept dirty yellow water and
boil/filter it yourself. The thousands of trucks that carry water into the
city now drive 2-3x farther to find water, some from dubious polluted sources.
Several years ago during a severe flood, a relative of mine recounted how she
had to pour water through a cloth sheet to remove live worms and bugs.
Hopefully they finally find the political will to address the situation, but I
wouldn't count on it.

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totaldude87
Well, not limited to Chennai but to entire India

1) save rain water, harvest them properly 2) ration water , basic needs are
free, like x litres per family but over use is charged 3) link rivers

On top of all this , make people aware that water is not something you can
waste just like that ..

Ignorance is not bliss

~~~
vram22
>3) link rivers

I'm not an expert on this one, but my gut feel is that linking rivers will
probably greatly change and likely destroy ecosystems. This idea has been
floating round in India from the time I was in my teens or a bit later, and
there has been both support and opposition to it from various groups. IMO, at
least the wildlife - both flora and fauna, not to mention micro-organisms,
will drastically change (and some of them will likely be heavily affected),
due to the sudden physical and chemical changes (like differing levels of
dissolved salts and other chemicals, silt, salinity or freshness), of some
rivers versus others, when they are linked together.

A better idea is probably much more intensive and extensive rain water
harvesting, building thousands more ponds and "tanks" (term here for larger
ponds) for water collection, water usage reduction (where it makes sense),
water conservation, and majorly, afforestation.

For afforestation (and preventing or reducing _deforestation_ , first), it is
well known that forests increase rainfall and also moderate and buffer its
dispersal once it is on/in the earth, and reduce/slow down its discharge from
the ecosystem, thereby proving more water throughout the year, even in dry
seasons.

See the book The Forest and The Sea by Marston Bates [1].

I had read it as a teenager. A very good exposition of the many interacting
factors in natural systems like forests and seas, symbiosis, and all the
benefits they provide for humans.

[1]:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Bates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Bates)

[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marston-
Bates](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marston-Bates)

[https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/177375.Marston_Bates](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/177375.Marston_Bates)

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1481687.The_Forest_and_t...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1481687.The_Forest_and_the_Sea)

[https://textbookhistory.com/marston-bates%E2%80%99-moment-
of...](https://textbookhistory.com/marston-bates%E2%80%99-moment-of-zen/)

From above link:

[ "Though Rachel Carson is usually credited for raising the public’s awareness
of ecology, as Marion Clawson noted, it was Marston Bates’ 1960 book, The
Forest and the Sea, not Silent Spring, that made “ecology a household word.” ]

[https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Sea-Marston-
Bates/dp/B000P0D61...](https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Sea-Marston-
Bates/dp/B000P0D61A)

The Indian government, NGOs and corporates could look to countries like Israel
(which seem to have done wonders in the desert with drip irrigation and many
other techniques - I've only heard a bit about it, some from my grandfather,
who was a scientist in the field, and visited there), to solve the water
issues and also improve resource usage / conservation and also better and more
agriculture production, all at the same time.

~~~
vram22
>thereby proving more water throughout the year

Sorry, I meant "providing", not "proving".

------
noisy_boy
Some more details/background on the water crisis here:
[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-chennais-
water...](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-chennais-water-crisis-
should-worry-you/articleshow/69884460.cms)

------
fervorandall
The politicians and bureaucracy complete lack of action is astounding. I
believe Bangalore will soon face similar situation.

Politician's themselves profiting of sand mining from rivers, not taking any
action to prevent pollution of lakes even though some of them have caught
fire(the infamous Bellandur lake), allowing encroachment of water ways etc.
Any one of this should have caused people to vote out those in power or raise
voice against the bureaucracy. But no, it will not happen - why? My guess is
people will continue to vote on religious and cast lines. People will be
divided based on any difference they can find between them and will never
fight together for what matters. Absolute horrible of a shit show it is....

~~~
klyrs
> Politician's themselves profiting of sand mining from rivers...

who is buying all this sand?

~~~
sateesh
Normal populace primarily for house construction.

------
thewhitetulip
We need to focus extensively on tree plantation and rainwater harvesting.

I don't understand why governments don't focus on this

~~~
asicsp
When I was in Bengaluru, I used to volunteer for tree plantation events run by
Say Trees. IIRC, they had around 90% success rate of planted trees growing
well after maintaining them in non-monsoon season of first year of plantation.

It is time people take up and support initiatives like this, in addition to
looking for government driven programs.

------
thallukrish
Harvesting the rain water is the only way. Desalination could be another way.
But in general, keeping rivers alive, lakes, ponds and smaller water bodies
alive is the key. Earth has everything for everyone's need but not greed -
Mahatma Gandhi.

------
baybal2
Pakistan and urban Bangladesh are another great examples of a very watery
places with severest water shortages.

Both get devastating floods, and have very high waterflow rivers, but people
in cities can't do a thing about having no tap water.

------
discordance
Anyone know whatever happened to Dean Kamen's Slingshot vapor distillation
unit?

That was big news 10 years ago

~~~
cconcepts
Was thinking this recently. Saw the Netflix show. From my very limited
understanding it seems the cost per litre of safe water could be prohibitive
but I don't know that.

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lota-putty
1\. They need to bore tunnels in western ghats, collect excess rain water west
of western ghats to divert towards east of western ghats.

2\. Rainwater harvesting should be mandated for every house in district &
state capitals.

~~~
vram22
>1\. They need to bore tunnels in western ghats, collect excess rain water
west of western ghats to divert towards east of western ghats.

That might cause an ecological disaster on par with what I described here in
this thread:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20256517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20256517)

------
snorrah
I remember watching Quantum of Solace and being so disappointed the precious
resource the bad guys wanted to control was just water. How could that be
precious? It’s everywhere!

I feel pretty stupid now.

~~~
rramadass
Watch the documentary "Blue Gold: World Water Wars" to understand the scale of
the problem worldwide.

Most people have no idea of what is in the offing w.r.t. fresh water reserves.
In fact many of the wealthiest on the planet have already brought up land
containing fresh water reserves as a hedge against the future.

------
tsjq
Dec 2019: "why Chennai, India's Sixth biggest City, gets flooded from one
night's rain."

------
viig99
The water woes can be solved easily if people with sense start rain water
harvesting. Every year Chennai drowns in rains, if one can store all the
excess water there should be no water scarcity in the summer, it's just people
not giving a fuck. Too worried about stupid shit like language, cows and dick
head politicians to care about drinking water.

~~~
gingabriska
You can startup around this and take advantage of this opportunity if you see
any business here.

I mean if it's easy as you make it appear, you might as well supply water and
beat those tankers on the prices.

