Water crisis: a case of Chennai

Abstract

The increasing demand for water supply, coupled with an ever-increasing population, rapid urbanization, and unplanned measures, put excessive pressure on the water resources. water scarcity is expected to become a major source of national political conflict in the future. The Chennai metropolitan area (CMA) comprising Chennai city, with a population of 4.9 million is the fourth-largest urban agglomeration in India. Frequent water supply crises and unreliable water supply are common phenomena in Chennai city. The 2019 Chennai water crisis in India resulted in severe disruptions to social order and daily life. This water crisis is attributed to rapid land-use change and consequent loss of water bodies, not having a proper water management system and irregularities in monsoon. In this research, an in-depth examination of the water policy of 1994 in light of the provisions in the National Water Policy of 2012 has been carried out which revealed that several important features of the National Water Policy of 2012 are lacking in Tamil Nadu’s policy. For example, it makes no mention of ecological water needs, managing water requirements through cropping patterns changes, and so on