Topic Reading-Vol.2630-6/24/2019

Topic Reading-Vol.2630-6/24/2019

Life in India's first city that's almost out of water

Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, Chennai, used to be called Madras, is the biggest cultural, economic and educational center of south India. With a population of nearly five million, it is the sixth largest city in India.

Chennai usually gets most of the seasonal rainfall during the monsoon season from October to December that refills water reservoirs. Since no major rivers flow through the region, Chennai suffered from massive floods during the monsoon season in 2015 that was caused the record-breaking rains in a century. But when there is little rain during the season, the city gets water shortage. And that is what happed in the last monsoon season. As a result, the city’s four major reservoirs are almost dried out after having no rain for nearly 200 days. Now people, businesses, hotels, schools and even hospitals get no tap water. They are solely depending on water tankers. Only large hospitals get priority for water delivery, but most others get rationed quota of water once a day or week. Many restaurants and hotels are closed for weeks. People have a hard time washing their dishes, bodies and even hands before a meal, which is hygienically problematic as people eat by hand. Don’t even think about toilet flush. Furthermore, farmers are badly hit by this drought as they mostly depend on ground water which is also running very low. Only those who are driving water trucks are exempt from this crisis.

Are major cities in other regions free from such severe water shortage?

Read the article and learn what water shortage is like in a major city.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/22/india/chennai-india-water-crisis-intl/index.html