WATER
Another Bengaluru in the making?
Chennai’s main drinking water source Veeranam lake dries up
Water inflow stops from Mettur dam, other reservoirs experiencing a decline too
NEXT NEWS ❯
By Shivani Chaturvedi
Published: Tuesday 16 April 2024
Mettur dam on the Cauvery river. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
After Bengaluru, Chennai residents are facing the worrying prospect of a water crisis as summer heat intensifies — Veeranam Lake, one of the city’s primary water sources, has already run dry.
The water storage in Veeranam Lake was recorded at zero million cubic feet (mcft) on April 15, 2024, according to data by the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). Last year, on the same date, the lake held 687.40 mcft of water, while its total capacity is 1,465 mcft.
Veeranam Lake serves as a crucial drinking water source for Chennai. However, its supply was halted on February 28, 2024, due to the lack of inflow from the Mettur dam, pushing the reservoir into dead storage.
Read more: Water levels in reservoirs at 35% of capacity; southern India’s at just 20%
The other reservoirs are also experiencing a decline. On April 15, the storage in Poondi lake was 1,323 mcft out of a total capacity of 3,231 mcft. Cholavaram Lake had 216 mcft, with a total capacity of 1,081 mcft.
Puzhal lake recorded 2,808 mcft out of a total capacity of 3,300 mcft. Kannankottai Thervoy Kandigai had 408 mcft, against a total capacity of 500 mcft. Chembarambakkam lake held 2,578 mcft, with a total capacity of 3,645 mcft.
On April 5, 2024, Down To Earth reported that water levels in Cauvery basin were classified as deficient by Central Water Commission (CWC). Water levels in the basin dropped to 21 per cent from 23 per cent the week before.
As April progresses, Chennai residents are bracing themselves for the frightening prospect of worsening water scarcity. Borewells in Medavakkam, a neighbourhood already suffering from the shortage, are running dry, leaving residents with few options other than relying on dwindling groundwater or expensive private water tankers. This demonstrates the severe lack of piped water supply in the area.
Read more: Water crisis: Is Bengaluru’s fate in store for Mangaluru and Shivamogga?
Chennai uses a variety of water sources, including surface water, groundwater and desalinated seawater. According to CMWSSB data, the average groundwater level in January this year was 3.46 metres, rising to 4.22 metres in February and then to 4.91 metres in March. The city also relies on three desalination plants: one in Minjur with a capacity of 100 million litres per day (MLD) and two in Nemmeli with capacities of 110 MLD and 150 MLD, respectively.
This year, the water supply authority appears to be more confident in its ability to meet Chennai’s water needs until September-October. A senior official from CMWSSB stated, “We have enough surface water to supply Chennai until September-October. The total storage level of surface water is 13.222 tmc, with the current storage level in these sources being 7.746 tmc. Last year’s storage level around the same time was 9.262 tmc.”
Despite a monthly demand of 2,232 MLD, CMWSSB supplies 1,070 MLD, albeit with a persistent demand-supply gap. Chennai, with a population of 9 million, suffers from a chronic imbalance in water demand and supply. Historically, CMWSSB has provided 830 MLD per day, up from 525 MLD in 2019, which was supplied on alternate days.
Read more: India’s parched rivers: At least 13 without water, much lower than same period last year
According to a joint study conducted in October last year by Anna University, Chennai and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai’s widening water demand-supply gap is expected to reach nearly 466 MLD by 2030, exacerbated by factors such as rapid urbanisation and climate change.
Professor L Elango, the study’s lead author, emphasised the city’s acute water scarcity, particularly during the summer months, citing depleted groundwater sources, seawater intrusion and insufficient rainfall. By 2030, Chennai’s water demand is expected to reach 2,365 MLD, with an estimated supply of 1,988 MLD by 2040 and 2,049 MLD by 2050.
The study forecasted that the unmet demand would rise to about 717.5 MLD by 2040 and a substantial 962 MLD by 2050.
Elango advocated for a multifaceted approach to water resource management, emphasising the importance of groundwater recharge, desalination expansion and the use of reclaimed water to address the growing deficit.
The study’s findings suggested that implementing various interventions concurrently could significantly reduce the gap between water supply and demand, with a projected drop to 110 MLD by 2030, 250 MLD by 2040 and 454 MLD by 2050.
Read more: Bitter end to sweet limes: Farmers in parched Marathwada forced to uproot citrus orchards
But to address the city’s water deficit, concerted efforts are required to prioritise groundwater recharge and reclaimed water utilisation, as well as water consumption reduction.
However, there are concerns that even initiatives like rainwater harvesting and the implementation of desalination plants, may not be enough, said BV Mudgal, a retired professor from the Centre for Water Resources at Anna University.
There’s a critical need for sustainable solutions to safeguard water access, he said. Highlighting the city’s heavy reliance on rainfall, Mudgal noted that while the average annual rainfall, which is 900-1,000 mm, remains relatively constant, the demand for water surpasses the available supply due to population growth, a trend expected to persist.
“There’s an urgency to augment the water supply, as Chennai’s own rainfall alone cannot meet the escalating demand,” Mudgal said, advocating for the utilisation of wastewater from industries and underscores the importance of regular conservation efforts.
Read more: Vanishing wells of Marathwada: Farmers report water table dropped to 300 metres in 30 years
Additionally, he pointed out the challenges posed by cyclonic rainfall, which concentrates along the coast within a limited area of 10-15 kilometres. “Given Chennai’s flat terrain, storing such rainfall proves difficult, necessitating alternative methods like groundwater recharge and rainwater harvesting,” he said.
Former director of the Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research at Anna University, K Palanivelu, attributed the water crisis in Chennai to a combination of climate change and inadequate management of rainwater.
“Without effective policy governance and widespread adoption of rainwater harvesting practices, Chennai may soon face Day Zero, a scenario where the city’s water sources are completely depleted,” Palanivelu warned.
जल से जुड़ी सभी खबरें हिंदी में पढ़ें।
water crisis Rainfall Water shortage Water Cauvery India Tamil Nadu Chennai (D)
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WATER
As war looms over West Asia, many of its major water bodies are already on the brink
The Tigris-Euphrates and Jordan river basins, Dead Sea, Zayandeh Rud, Red Sea and Persian Gulf are symbols of the intertwined geopolitical & hydrological crises in the region
NEXT NEWS ❯
By Rajat Ghai
Published: Monday 15 April 2024
The dried bed of the Zayandeh Rud river in Isfahan, Iran, in 2022. Photo: iStock
The Islamic Republic of Iran attacked the State of Israel with missiles on the night of April 13-14, 2024, as tensions in West Asia reached an all time high.
The region has been simmering for over six months now after the October 2023 attacks by Palestinian group Hamas inside southern Israel. The Jewish state’s response has claimed the lives of over 30,000 Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
But even as the specter of a larger war looms over the region, with the possibility of major powers becoming involved, West Asia is already over the edge in at least one respect: Water.
Most of the region’s prominent and best-known water bodies are vanishing or have already vanished in certain cases. In many instances, hydrological conflict is intertwined with the political and military and vice-versa.
As West Asia hurtles towards ‘unchartered territory’ in the aftermath of the Iranian attack, the question of water again comes to the fore as summer has just begun and this year is expected to break all records as far as temperatures go.
Dry and arid
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has just one per cent of the world’s total renewable freshwater resources, according to the Middle East Institute. This, even as the region hosts five per cent of the world’s population.
The Institute adds that MENA will be among one the hardest-hit regions of the world due to climate change according to International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections.
An article by the Brookings Institute also notes that “desertification is sweeping across the region in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Iran”.
Read
UN 2023 Water Conference: I am hopeful Great Salt Lake won’t go the Aral Sea and Lake Urmia way, says Kevin Perry
Climate change will cause disputes such as the Helmand to continue for years: Fatemeh Aman
Yes, there are crocodiles in Iran and they are in trouble due to climate change
“Climate change can have a dilapidating impact on security and the fabric of societies by inflaming socioeconomic fractures and eroding the trust in public institutions. The problem is best summed up as interconnected crises that combine to create a domino effect of problems at the local, national, and geopolitical level,” it notes.
It urges Middle Eastern governments to “recalibrate how they make decisions about climate-related threats, taking into account the short and long-term implications of the crisis”.
Governments in the region need to take action fast, for the clock is ticking.
‘Cradles of civilisation’ no more
West Asia has been host to several ancient human civilisations. Many of them began and may have ended because of water.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers gave rise to the civilisations of Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) — Assyria, Akkad, Sumer and Babylon. But today, these once-mighty rivers are themselves on the brink.
“Upstream anthropogenic activity has choked the Tigris River, the connecting lifeline across Iraq, and caused the country to be plagued by poverty caused by droughts and desertification,” a paper published in Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies in August last year, noted.
Heavy rains in the middle of February 2024 put an end to the drought that had been in place since 2020. But according to experts, unless the dam building upstream on these rivers by Iraq’s neighbours Turkiye and Iran stops, Iraq will be in trouble again.
Meanwhile, the southern part of the basin has already seen destruction during the late Saddam Hussein’s regime. The dictator had got the marshes of southern Iraq drained. The two rivers meet in Al Qurnah to form the Shatt al-Arab or Arvand Rud waterway, which was the cause of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.
Another river basin of the region — that of the Jordan — also faces its own challenges. Jordan has signed treaties with Syria and Israel on sharing of the biblical waterway’s waters. These have largely endured though the Jordan-Israel Treaty does not take Palestinian voices into account, as an article in The Conversation noted.
It also mentioned the Red Sea to Dead Sea Initiative between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority that envisioned bring water from the Red Sea (near the ports of Aqaba and Eilat) to the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan ends. The Sea is fast vanishing and has become another symbolic reminder of the water crises in the region.
Iranian Plateau
Iran, which attacked Israel on April 13 night, is itself in the throes of a burgeoning water crisis as many of its water bodies are disappearing, leading to protests and posing a threat to the regime in Tehran.
One such recent instance was the 2021 Zayandeh Rud protests. The Zayandeh river, which ends in Lake Gavkhouni near the fabled city of Isfahan, began to dry up in the early 2000s.
In 2021, matters came to a head as protests by farmers and other people began in Isfahan city, through which the river used to flow.
According to a recent paper, “the geographical location of Iran shows that about 80% of the total area is located in an arid or semi-arid zone”.
It adds that land degradation and desertification have accelerated in Iran during the recent decades. Particularly hit is the Zayandeh Rud Basin due to factors including its geographical location, salinisation, elevation, slope, and human activities.
In the aftermath of the protests, media reports also noted that the diversion of the river for use in neighbouring Yazd province and mismanagement in this regard had caused it to dry.
Further east, Afghanistan and Iran have a history of friction over sharing the waters of the Helmand river, which rises in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan, crosses the border and ends in Lake Hamoun.
Read
‘The Persian Gulf is a sensitive issue in Iran’
Climate change, war disrupting global trade in 3 key sea lanes of Black Sea, Red Sea & Panama Canal: UNCTAD
Erythraean Sea: Why Rubymar’s sinking in the southern Red could be an environmental catastrophe
In May last year, at least three people were killed and several other were injured after Iranian and Afghan troops exchanged gunfire on the border between the two countries, amid tensions between Kabul and Tehran over the sharing of waters of the Helmand.
Meanwhile, the two inlets of the Indian Ocean that are part of West Asia — the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, also face challenges which have come to the fore since the October attacks by Hamas.
Both are connected to the Indian Ocean by straits — Bab el Mandeb and Hormuz. These are choke points where conflict or geopolitical tensions can pose a direct threat to global supply chains.
This has been seen in the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and now, the Iranian capture of an Israel-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to a recent article, “As the implications of climate change for security and stability transcend political and national borders, actions and solutions require a collaborative effort. The climate crisis, thereby, forces non-traditional partners to cooperate and could present opportunities to overcome historic grievances, promote trust-building and improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors through economic and environmental cooperation.”
At this moment though, peace has sadly taken a backseat. Even as the worst may perhaps be yet to come — politically, militarily and hydrologically.
जल से जुड़ी सभी खबरें हिंदी में पढ़ें।
West Asia Middle East war Israel water conflict Israel-Gaza Water World
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