CHENNAI: As the water crisis worsens in Chennai, residents seem to be either getting out of the city on short breaks, or postponing their return after a holiday, or shifting homes from one part of the city to another in the hope of getting better water supply.

Ashok Kumar , a long-time resident of Kodambakkam, had to move to KK Nagar looking for 'greener pastures'. "We were getting water for just three hours a day. We couldn't handle it because we would sometimes not be home at the time," says the 50-year-old who runs a catering unit.

Deficit rainfall in 2017 and a failed monsoon in 2018 have resulted in depleted groundwater levels, leaving the city grappling with chronic water shortage. Earlier this month, the state government declared 17 districts, including Chennai and Kancheepuram, drought-hit. These districts recorded deficit rainfall ranging between 19% and 59% last year.

The four reservoirs that supply drinking water to Chennai are nearly empty. Perungudi resident M S Srikanth moved into a relative’s house for two days. Then he took a train out to his sister’s home in Bengaluru for the weekend.

“It wasn’t a holiday,” says a distraught Srikanth, a project scientist at Anna University. “I had to take my family and leave the city because we did not have water for 10 days.” Although back from his visits just last week, Srikanth is already thinking of where he can go next as he has just been informed his building is still not getting water.

K Gopal from Peungudi is another who left the city for a relative’s home in Kerala to get away from the worsening water situation. But, says Gopal, despite the brief respite, he is back again in the throes of the crisis. “Some of the tenants in our building have moved out,” he says.

