Question

What are the issues faced by the people of Chennai? How is that issue related to other cities?

Answer 1

Instructions: Mention the water supply issue in Chennai and also brief about how this issue is also faced by the other cities.

Solution: There is a shortage of water supply in Chennai. The areas which are close to the water supply get more water whereas colonies far away receive less water.

And this burden of shortage of water falls on the poor. The middle class people deal with it with the help of private means such as dogging borewells, buying water from tankers and using bottled water.

In reality, therefore, it seems that it is only people with money who have the right to water – a far cry from the goal of universal access to ‘sufficient and safe’ water.
This shortage of water is not only limited to Chennai, there are many more cities facing the same issue.

The supply of water per person in an urban area in India should be about 135 litres per day (about seven buckets) – a standard set by the Urban Water Commission. Whereas people in slums have to make do with less than 20 litres a day per person (one bucket), people living in luxury hotels may consume as much as 1,600 litres (80 buckets) of water per day.
The shortage of municipal water is taken as the failure of the government.