Coping with a crisis

THE RAINS from the Southwest monsoon continue to play their shadow game in Chennai. Water collection has beaten watching TV serials as the highpoint of the day. Water management now determines the ebb and flow of household economics. How is everyone coping?

Check out the road that cleaves through Padmanabha Nagar in Adyar. Most mornings, the water tankers arrive around 10 a.m. At each street corner leading to the main road, there is a group waiting behind containers of every conceivable and inconceivable shape, colour and capacity. Young and old, programme analysts and peons, stand side by side waiting for the daily fill. A great leveller, this water shortage.

With the life-essential draining incomes to the tune of Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 2,000 a month, it is not surprising that grab-what-you-can is the predominant philosophy now.``It is our Residents' Association that ensures a fairly regular metro water supply after the pipe from Red Hills went dry,''says Nagalakshmi, a senior member of its women's wing.``The 22 families here get two buckets of water each. You get back in line for more if you want to avoid buying water.''She pays for a 4,000 litre private supply and buys canned water for drinking. Rues a resident thinking of the days ahead, "Borewells may go dry and the metro water trips, less frequent. The price of private supply may spurt.''He adds,``I should have gone in for rainwater harvesting." Which is what Ravi Kumar is doing to stave off a waterless future. His neighbour Kalyani dug out a large sump and has been buying water for the last 10 years.``It is hassle-free,''is her contention.

Cross into T.M. Mistry Street in Vannanthurai and it is a different scene. Says Govindarajan of Gyan Darshan,``These buildings came up in 1994. Each block of four apartments has a small sump which can hold water enough to quench a squirrel's thirst for three days. Corporation supply dried up in years.

We managed with the ground water pumped to an overhead tank. In May, it gradually took longer to pump and in a week the motor spewed out cement-like powder good enough for construction. Many in this area have been caught by surprise because their ground water supply had all along been copious and sweet!"

After digging borewells down to 120 feet, they replaced water diviners with water carriers. Every morning, with wallets full of small change they await the water-cyclists. At Rs. 3 a pot, and an average of 20 pots a day, the total outgo is a tidy sum.

The story is much the same everywhere. Metro water supply pipes have gone dry. Underground water is either brackish or coloured or both. Many hand pumps just groan an apology. In some the water that gushes out could be straight from the sea. Tanker supply is not always regular. Private water-carriers and canned water traders make money when the sun shines from a cloudless sky.

Water fetching is now a bona-fide business with regular returns. "I have a tricycle and six plastic pots and I make seven or eight trips a day,''says 49-year old Kanniappa Naikar of C.S. Colony, Adyar. He makes more than he did cultivating his land outside Tambaram. He adds,``No government can solve this problem. I now save enough to retire to a comfortable life.''

Kaliaperumal wheels around 12 pots a day but this is his `side- business'. Twelve-year old Selva Kumar pushes eight pots down the road after school.``I finish my home-work in school,''he chirps, "the money goes to the family kitty.''His flower-seller mother's complaints that he is never home are lost in the high-pitched rush to store the available water.

For the upmarket occupants of Deccan Enclaves nearby, the water shortage is `a bit of a nuisance'. Their submersible motor burnt out and the borewell brings up `soapy' water. Provision for RWH in the new building is waiting for the elusive downpour. Residents can't stoop to fetch water from the street so they pay for private tankers. Water is rationed but there are allegations that the smarter ones bribe the watchman for an out-of-turn supplement.

"There is no co-operation among us,''complains B.G. Ramachandran, joint secretary of the Association.``Some collect water in 100- litre containers. Not all of us can afford to pay the escalating water charges.''

Duped by a builder who booked the flats on the strength of a well that did not belong to them, the 76 families in Sivagami Apartments shine the light on co-operation as a means of solving the water crisis. In a display of strong community spirit,``We just paid up the cost of boring deep wells and two treatment plants when the water went brackish. There is also the once-in- three-days metro water supply. The young ones help carry it up three floors and we see that everyone has a decent fill,''says Jaya Adiseshan.

A common concern makes us `comrades in adversity'. Whether your pay-packet is Rs 3,000 or Rs 30,000, your problem is the same. Waterless taps and waiting for the freighter on the road. May be, just may be, this crisis will wake up the dormant sense of neighbourliness, a culture of co-operation that is as rare in the city as the Southwest monsoon rains.

GEETA PADMANABHAN

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