Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects to economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Sarah Wohlfahrt makes this connection in Chennai, India. This current event was reported in The Times of India, on March 5, 2017, under the title, “Southern India reels under drought, Tamil Nadu worst hit”, by Yogesh Kabirdossi. This story is likely not fake news because of another article reporting on the same issue in livemint.

This issue relates to water distribution discipline of water resources engineering because it is a problem with the Chennai water resource supply and the reservoir retention. With the intense drought that has occurred in India, reservoirs have been majorly depleted, causing many other city-wide issues. This is important news for water resources engineering because it demonstrates the significance of the political side of water resources. State water resource departments help to regulate the use of the water collected in reservoirs. Some WRE that could be added to the article would be how the engineers plan on preventing a situation like this one from happening in the future. Kabirdossi seemed to focus more on the societal effects rather than the engineering side of the drought.

Figure 1. Drought continues to affect Chennai, India, by depleting its drinking water source. (2018)

Figure 2. Twitter response to the Chennai water crisis. (2018)

In Chennai, India economic, environmental, and societal issues are faced every day. Slums make up a significant part of the culture of Chennai. It was found that the number of slums in Chennai increased by about 50% between 2001 and 2014 (2018). One of main causes of this is the major floods that regularly occur in the region.4 These floods can wipe away residents’ belongings and leave them in devastation.4 Another environmental issue that they face is the drought. Droughts bring about a lack of drinking water and increased chance of summer fires.  Over a period of 20 days, 100 thousand million cubic feet was depleted from 27 of the Chennai reservoirs. The reservoirs that typically supply Chennai with its drinking water dried up to less than 80% of normal in 2017, cutting off the water supply to the city (2018). This is an economic burden because there are many facilities and industries that rely on water and would hurt if the supply is depleted. The water resources engineering event described by Kabirdossi does not directly have an effect on societal issues but is indirectly affected by the environmental and economic issues that come with it. There is a direct cause-effect between the depleted 27 reservoirs and the Chennai drought. This problem may have been avoided if the reservoirs were able to handle large floods as well as prepare for droughts by keeping an emergency storage unit always available.

References

(2018). Chennai faces acute water crisis – Times of India. [online] The Times of India. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/chennai-faces-acute-water-crisis/articleshow/56325453.cms [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].

Anon, (n.d.). Lessons for Mumbai from the Chennai floods – Rediff.com …. [online] Available at: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/lessons-for-mumbai-from-the-chennai-floods/20151208.htm [Accessed 2018].

Kabirdoss, Y. (2018). Southern India reels under drought, Tamil Nadu worst hit – Times of India ►. [online] The Times of India. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/south-in-drought-grip-water-in-tamil-nadu-dams-at-80-below-normal/articleshow/57472927.cms [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].

Kumar, P. (2018). Is economic samathuvapuram key to ridding state of slums? – Times of India. [online] The Times of India. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/is-economic-samathuvapuram-key-to-ridding-state-of-slums/articleshow/63917199.cms [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].

Murtugudde, R. (2018). To better prepare for drought and flood, India needs an integrated system to map water, air, climate. [online] Scroll.in. Available at: https://scroll.in/article/839387/to-better-prepare-for-drought-and-flood-india-needs-an-integrated-system-to-map-water-air-climate [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].

Philip, C. (2018). Slums in Chennai increase by 50% in a single decade – Times of India. [online] The Times of India. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Slums-in-Chennai-increase-by-50-in-a-single-decade/articleshow/50618951.cms [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].