India's Sixth Largest City Almost Out of Water

[Stuart G]

Source: CNN

New Deli (CNN) -- The floor of the Chembarambakkam reservoir is cracked open, dry and sun-baked. About 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away, in Chennai, India's sixth largest city, millions of people are running out of water.

Chembarambakkam and the three other reservoirs that have traditionally supplied Chennai are nearly all dry, leaving the city suffering from an acute water shortage, said Jayaram Venkatesan, an activist in the city.

Due to an inability to collect sufficient rain water combined with low groundwater levels, the Tamil Nadu state government has been struggling to provide water to residents.

With the reservoirs dry, water is being brought directly into Chennai neighborhoods in trucks. Every day, hundreds of thousands of residents have no choice but to stand in line for hours in soaring summer temperatures, filling dozens of cans and plastic containers.

"We are open and we are somehow functioning. But we are running at a no-loss, no-gain situation. This is our only business. We have no other option. We have to run it," said Subburaman.

"Earlier the water would come every day at home. Now, we get it every three to four days. We store the water in a small tank or 20-liter plastic pots at home," said Subburaman whose home is in Egattur neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Chennai.

M. Senthilsaravanan, another hotel owner and resident, said: "In (the) Chennai area, hotels and restaurants have shut down because we are not getting sufficient water and there is high demand."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/19/india/chennai-water-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html

---

Chennai is the sixth-most-populous city in India (4,646,000). Los Angeles has a population of 3,990,000.That is 600,000 less than Chennai, and LA is our second most populated city.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. This is just the beginning.

[underpants]

2. Yes sadly it is

[Stuart G]

3. Yes, I think you are correct. There will be other cities who face this problem.

Perhaps, not as bad as this, but some cities will. I believe that once, wars were fought over water..(but I may be wrong on that) Clean drinkable water is the single most important resource. (behind breathable air, of course). I think the next might be a fully complete and totally without fault sewage system. (that affects the clean water)

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Seems like just yesterday everyone was saying...IF climate change comes

and we just zoomed past "when"

and here we are...at now.

Yet our glorious leaders are still 100% focused on getting more fossil juice out of the ground.

[Nay]

19. Yep. There's no fixing this -- the scale is too large. nt

[CrispyQ]

22. Too many people.

But that topic is forbidden. Oh well. Mother Nature will take care of it, since we won't.

SIX BILLION MIRACLES IS ENOUGH

I bought that bumper sticker at the turn of the century. The current world pop clock is at 7.7 billion.

[roamer65]

25. Mother Nature or WW3 will solve it.

[CrispyQ]

29. It's not looking good for homo sapiens.

"Our big brains will save us."

Ha! Our big brains got us into this mess.





Then there's the narcissist. An empty shot glass, with an orange bouffant, & the contents spilled beside it.

[clementine613]

4. ... and, of course, the Rethugs do nothing to help...

... because they don't care if Indians die.

[Demonaut]

5. they know what's coming, the sooner it starts the sooner it ends, they want these things

[Calista241]

6. What are we supposed to do? Ship them water?

We have some trouble here providing our own cities with water. Atlanta, with nearly 6 million residents, is totally reliant on a single river and a single reservoir. California, just a few years ago, had a horrendous drought.

India, if they want to support their cities, will need to invest in sewage treatment, desalination and most likely explore uses of grey water. In addition, they need to take care of the water sources they have. The pollution of rivers in Asia would make most people here cringe. And it's not just industrial pollution, sewage is a very serious problem and needs to be treated before being pumped back into the rivers.

Instead of signing new contracts for tanks and jet fighters, perhaps they should invest their money on treating sewage.

[Crowman2009]

7. Although not on the same scale as the US, India needs to curb its defense spending.

And work on infrastructure, health, and family planning.

[NickB79]

28. Support the Paris Accords and accept climate science, for one

This will be the future for billions without action now.

[former9thward]

37. India and China refused to set any goals in the Paris Accords.

So their "support" was meaningless.

[NickB79]

38. I don't care, frankly, what China or India do

When I look my grandchild in the eyes 30 yr from now, if the world is going to hell I want to at least say I tried. We tried. We at least tried to do the right thing as a nation and as a people.

What other option is there? Party like there's no tomorrow?

[former9thward]

40. You don't care what the most gigantic polluters in the world do?

Well, ok, good luck!

[Jose Garcia]

21. India has a $2.5 trillion economy

That about the same as the United Kingdom. If this problem isn't solved, it's due to a lack of political will, not a lack of money.

[LanternWaste]

23. Same economy vs the disparity of the two populations: 1.3 bil v 66 mil

Meaning the per capita gdp and gnp are grossly misaligned. Meaning your premise of equivalency may not be as valid as thought.

[CrispyQ]

30. They think once the eaters & takers are all gone (that's most of us, BTW),

everything will be groovy. They will have this beautiful planet to themselves.

They have no idea how hot the planet already is, the changes that are already in play & can't be reversed, even by a massive die off of humanity.

[BigmanPigman]

8. The future is now.

Look around. It will only worsen. Humans are self destructive.

[CrispyQ]

31. If only the rapture would happen & take away all these mean spirited, close minded assholes.

[yaesu]

9. i wish there was a way of sending all the rain we don't need. nt

[Judi Lynn]

10. Such bad news for such a vast area, and vast population. Thank you, so much, for this information.

Pictures of the Chembarambakkam reservoir in Google Images:

https://tinyurl.com/y3d5vohc

Google images of Chennai:

https://tinyurl.com/y6sz6gr4

[BannonsLiver]

12. Overpopulation which is a major problem in India will amplify the effects of climate change.

Another great reason to think twice about breeding.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Now is the time to take it all totally seriously. We couldn't survive "worse." n/t

[Nay]

20. The time to take it seriously was about 40 years ago. But nobody did. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. ty for the pics

and for all the good articles you post, I really enjoy them.

[Judi Lynn]

16. So very, very kind of you. Thank you. n/t

[Honeycombe8]

11. Too many people for the resources on earth.

India has a LOT of people. Why it doesn't make birth control free, I don't know. I don't think it's against the Hindu or Muslim religion.

Water will be the new gold, on future earth.

[Recursion]

18. The government has an extensive family planning initiative

Birth control is free at government hospitals, and there is a widespread public education campaign.

However, as everywhere else, they are finding that the two most effective contraceptives are:

1. Education for girls
2. Economic development

Both of which are also key goals of the government.

[Honeycombe8]

26. Once again, that falls far short of what is needed.

It may, possibly, slow the continued growth. Which means the problem will get worse in future years.

[Vegas Roller]

24. Birth rates in India have been declining and

have declined 50% since 1971.

The problem has been the increased life expectancy which is increasing the population dramatically.

[Honeycombe8]

27. I'm not sure I agree that slowing the continued growth is a solution.

The problem requires extreme measures, which no country will do.

Water will be the new gold. Widespread famine and dying of thirst in the future.

The Bush family bought a huge expanse of land out in nowhere, just a few years ago. Why? Underneath that land is one of the world's largest WATER reserves. If you want to know what's going to happen in the future, look at what people with money are investing in.

[Hortensis]

39. Yes, and yes. Global population growth is slowing

and in a couple decades will start declining, which will bring its own problems and potential.

Without climate change and disappearing freshwater, we’d be doing far better even with the climate population we have. A lot of things are going really right, including as you say greatly expanded life spans around the planet, and exploding wellbeing.

It never had to be this way, and we will just have to fix it.

[melm00se]

41. Birth control

good summary of birth control by religion is here

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-religious-views-on-birth-control-906618

[Honeycombe8]

42. China tried to limit birth count to 1 per family.

What happened, though, is that people ended up murdering their babies. I don't know if China provided birth control. And of course, accidents happen...and no birth control is 100% effective.

[mopinko]

17. chennai is supposed to be the most beautiful part of india.

had the good fortune to go to india about 20 years ago. was mostly on the other side of the country. many people told us that chennai was the place to go. it is very heavily tourist dependent.

the population problem there is just plain staggering. so many people living on the edge. many, many of them will be pushed over.

[CrispyQ]

32. 5 US cities that could run out of water.

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-06-03-5-us-cities-that-could-potentially-run-out-of-water

There are too many of us. No one will tackle the issue of human over population & now it's too late. The industrial revolution was the start of an ability to over re-produce. And now here we are, 7.7 billion of us vying for an American Dream experience. It's not looking good for the ones with big brains.

[riverine]

33. The Ganges River is an open sewer - and the other major rivers are just as bad

India's holy Ganges River is devastatingly polluted, yet provides drinking water for over 400 million people — here's what it looks like

https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-indias-ganges-river-pollution-2018-1

[keithbvadu2]

34. Some native American cultures in our SW moved when the water dried up.

Some native American cultures in our SW moved when the water dried up.

[raccoon]

35. They were smart. Nt

[dalton99a]

36. .