Chennai: For the past few weeks, water scarcity issue has shaken the entire city, and Porur is not an exception. Being a hub of IT corridor, commercial establishments and other infrastructural developments, the suburb has witnessed a huge growth in the recent past.
At the same time, several encroachments started coming up and they started sucking huge quantities of ground water. This coupled with drying up of lakes and ruthless weather condition added to people’s misery.
“Summer heat is already taking a toll on all of us, and now water scarcity is affecting our day-to-day activities. Porur lake has dried up. I work in an IT company and was assigned to work from home for a few days because of water shortage. We have to run behind the water tankers and they don’t follow a regularised timing. The situation gets chaotic every single time a lorry comes into the area. Also, this leads to enmity among the residents,” says Ganesan from Mugalivakkam. He is also the president of a residential association here.
Meanwhile, in Ramapuram, people had pinned their hopes on the restoration of Rampuram lake. However, some of the residents here had to vacate the city due to unavailability of water. “I come from Theni. I stay in Ramapuram and work at a corporate company. Because of water scarcity, I had to move back to my native. Even some of my roommates are now planning to temporarily leave the area,” says Karthik.
Some of the locals also slam political leaders who call the issue a rumour. “Certain parties are addressing the issue lethargically and some are even terming the issue to be a rumour. This is totally unfair. The government should immediately pull their socks up and sort the issue out,” says a Kundrathur resident.
Similarly, in Iyyapanthangal, residents are worried about the condition of the lake in their locality.
“During monsoon, we requested a number of officials to dig the lake but none turned up. Also, the locals used the lake as well as the land nearby to dump waste. This reflected back at us. People are literally running out of water in our area,” rues Kannan, a social activist.
Article by P T Usha