The inflow was so high in two of the largest reservoirs – Chembarambakkam and Red Hills – that excess water had to be released inundating several residential neighbourhoods on its distribution course. A similar surplus prevailed in city reservoirs in 2015 when Chennai recorded a historic high rainfall only to become bone dry three years later. Exactly 18 months ago in June 2019, the city’s water managers raised their hands towards the sky and declared ‘Day Zero’ for Chennai when all four reservoirs turned dry and an acute water crisis crippled the city grabbing headlines.

Yet, the state appears to have learnt no lessons. Even as excess water was released from Chembarambakkam and Red Hills lakes, a majority of the 210 water bodies under the city corporation’s limit and the 28 larger lakes and tanks maintained by the Public Works Department in the city and suburbs, barely got filled while rainwater instead entered homes in low lying areas and remained there for days together highlighting serious flaws in the city’s water management. Following the acute crisis in 2018, Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board had identified 13 lakes and five quarries to draw water and augment the city’s water supply including the Ayanambakkam Lake, Korattur and Thiruneermalai Lakes. Two years have passed but no significant progress has taken place to the project as a modest NE monsoon in 2019 and Krishna water from the neighbouring state had ensured adequate water supply and water managers duly shelved the project.

Blaming errant rainfall for the city’s water crisis may not hold good any more. Blessed with an annual rainfall of around 140 cm, Chennai is among the wettest cities globally. Seattle, one of the wettest cities in the US gets around 95 cm of rainfall. For a city that gets abundant rainfall and has plentiful water bodies, it is more likely a failure of government machinery that allows this water to get wasted even as people pay thousands every month, even during good monsoon years, to buy water from private tankers, especially in the suburbs.

The basic problem lies in the fact that CMWSSB has for long supplied lesser water than Chennai needs. While the population of Chennai Metropolitan Area is around 8.6 million (according to 2011 census and would be much higher now), CMWSSB supplies just about 800 mld of water even during good monsoon years. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards 1993 (reaffirmed in 2007), the average water requirement per person per day in urban pockets with a population over 100,000 is around 150 to 200 litres. Going by this, Chennai needed anywhere between 1200 mld to 1600 mld of water ten years ago. This imbalance has led to an over-exploitation of groundwater resources and the business of selling water in tankers has evolved into a multi-crore enterprise, the success of which is dependent on a perpetual water shortage aptly facilitated by the state.

To ensure that Chennai does not hit a ‘Ground Zero’ again, the authorities must store rainwater in all the 1,550 water bodies in and around the city by constructing a network of stormwater drains. Instead of supplying water to the entire city from just four reservoirs, supply should be decentralised, and needs of a locality should be fulfilled using nearby ponds, tanks and other water bodies. This would ensure local communities’ participation in protecting water bodies as it would end up in their home taps. When CMWSSB can provide adequate water to all its citizens, pumping out groundwater using borewells should be completely banned only to be used by the state judiciously during drought years. With these measures in place coupled with the desalination plants and using treated water for non-essential purposes besides replenishing water bodies, Chennai can well become a water surplus city.