Water mafia draining groundwater in scarcity-stricken Chennai as Tamil Nadu government sleeps at the wheel

Chennai: Time and again, publications both domestic and foreign have shed light on the operations of locals who operate under the garb of 'Water Mafia' in contemporary India. In a majority of these cases, the water mafia comprises a group of economic hitmen who acquire water by going through illegal channels and sell it at a premium.

At present, such operations have come to light from Mumbai, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and even Delhi where borewells in Jamiya Nagar feed the supply of private water tankers.

The operations of this assumed water mafia have not even spared the state capital of Tamil Nadu, a city which seems to be nearing 'day zero'. A plethora of accounts from Chennai has suggested that the metropolitan could soon find itself sharing common ground with Cape Town, the capital of South Africa where the term 'day zero' was first coined in 2018 as the fateful day when the port city would run out of municipal water. The current population of Cape Town is an estimated 4.5 lakh as compared to Chennai which is the sixth most populous city in the world's second most populated country, home to about 4.9 lakh residents.

Interestingly, the illegal trade of water in this shortage stricken city transpires under the watchful eye of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) otherwise known as Metrowater. To put things in perspective, most recent reports have reason to believe that doctors in Chennai are left with no other options than to buy water for surgeries. A practicing doctor from the state capital told a media outlet that the cost of private water tankers will add to the medical bill of patients who can afford the exorbitant prices at which the water mafia is supplying it.

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In a report, Mirror Now's Pramod Madhav reached out to farmers in Thirumazhisai, a city located barely 25 kilometres outside of Chennai. These farmers own fertile farmlands which occupy ground in the Tiruvallur district where groundwater levels have dropped by 85 per cent since last year. Nowadays, these farmers are consenting to the water mafia drying up their groundwater reserves in order to nourish its supply to the residents of Chennai who are solely at the mercy of this illegitimate enterprise.

 

 

Farmers from Thirumazhisai are currently selling groundwater extracted from their farmlands to the water mafia at a price of ₹250 per tanker. Each of the tankers which are at the heart of this operation has the capacity to store 9,000-13,000 litres of groundwater. Groundwater, thousand times a baker's dozen being drained at the cost of ₹250 per 13000 litres, the same as the cost of four 5 litre cans of mineral water. For anyone who is still struggling to grasp the concept of why Chennai's illegal private water trade is controlled by a group of people who are identified as the water mafia and are fleecing their customers, each and every one of these tankers is being sold at a whopping price of anywhere between ₹6,000 and ₹8,000.

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It is anyone's guess that with a turnover of 320 per cent per tanker, the operations of the water mafia are flourishing in Chennai which is most likely to become the first Indian city to run out of municipal water. While Cape Town managed to reverse its 'day-zero' clock, the residents of Chennai are still struggling to fulfill their daily water needs. Unfortunately, the incumbent state government is still in a hesitant state of denial over the looming water crisis. A Tamil Nadu minister even went to the extent of calling reports about the state's water woes 'manufactured news' just last month.

[Water is extracted from a borewell on Poonamallee Bypass Road near Senneerkuppam in Chennai] (Picture Credits: BCCL)

At this time of distress, the Madras High Court is urging the AIADMK government to extend the Chennai Groundwater Regulation Act of 1987, to the entire state. A hearing for a bundle of cases against illegal water extraction was heard by Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad was held on Thursday. Farmers in the Tiruvallur district also told Mirror Now that they are ready to sell groundwater extracted from their farmlands to Metrowater at the more than generous price of ₹250 per tanker. However, the ruling power in Tamil Nadu seems to be unwilling to pull the state's inhabitants out of the drying well of water scarcity.