Packaged water units have remained closed for almost a week now, sparking off a shortage of drinking water in the city.
Members of the Greater Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers’ Association plan to take a decision on continuing the indefinite strike on Wednesday.
With the closure of 103 manufacturing units in Tiruvallur district till Monday, the supply dropped to 15-20% of the usual in the city on Tuesday, said Association members. About 1,600 units across the State have downed shutters in protest against the sealing of units that operated without no objection certificate from the PWD following a court directive.
A. Shakespeare, founder of the association, said that the State government must consider relaxing norms for manufacturing units that have been operating from before 2014, when the government order was passed on groundwater extraction. Such units could be allowed to function with restrictions. “We have already obtained licence from different government bodies to operate the units," he said.
Moreover, the government must relax the norms pertaining to sinking of borewells for units functioning prior to 2014. The interval of 150m between borewells would not have been followed by those who dug borewells near units. "We are incurring a loss. The membranes used for reverse osmosis will be damaged when not used and we need to spend ₹5 lakh to repair them," he added.