What Rain Has Fallen Will Have No Impact On Chennai's Drought; Regional Tensions Growing

[hatrack]

Murugan Sundaramurthy’s water business is buoyant. His fleet of tanker trucks have been fanning out across the countryside around Chennai for two decades, sucking water from boreholes and delivering it to homes to quench the city’s thirst. But demand today is as high as he can remember, prompting him to add 500 more vehicles to his existing fleet of 4,500.

The public water supply, the supposed alternative for his customers, has been reduced to a trickle by a withering drought. But the shortages also reflect a pervasive problem across India: water management by the authorities that has been inadequate for years.

Rain or shine, Chennai depends on water trucks because officials have neglected to invest in water infrastructure while allowing developers to build on wetlands.

One result is rising communal tensions. Rural residents living near Chennai have staged violent protests to draw attention to complaints that their wells are being drained dry to supply the city by members of a “water mafia” such as Mr Sundaramurthy.



EDIT

https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/08/no-end-to-crisis-in-sight-as-drought-grips-indias-chennai-the-civil-strife-in-this-country-will-start-from-water-not-from-religion.html

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick&recommend. Amazing gif. Kashmir is a water conflict now.

Gareth Price, senior research fellow at Chatham House...“Ten years ago if you would talk about India-Pakistan tension one would end up saying water is one good thing in their relationship. But in last ten years, it suddenly shifted. Because there are more people, there is potentially less rain or more climate change related things … more flooding or there is more encroachment,” he says.

https://thediplomat.com/2016/06/kashmir-a-water-war-in-the-making/