Madhumitha Viswanath By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: With severe water crisis and consequential increase in prices of vegetables eating into their margins, several small and medium-sized hotels in the city say they are on the verge of shutting down. Most of them are already operating for just five to six hours with limited items on the menu, and say they cannot continue to work under the current circumstance for more than a week.

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Almost all of the 9,000-odd hotels in the city — small, medium and large — are compelled to buy water at double the price compared to two months ago. Even if some of these hotel owners can afford the cost, the real problem is that there is no water available, says the hotel owners’ association.

“All essential activities, such as cooking and cleaning are completely dependent on water,” says Sekhar, owner of medium-sized restaurant in Teynampet. “With taps running dry, many of the hotels have shut down the toilets, and are giving finger bowls to customers.”

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M Ravi, president of Chennai Hoteliers Association, says a small-scale restaurant was spending around Rs 20,000 monthly on water before the current shortage began. A medium-scale restaurant was spending Rs 70,000. “Now they spend in lakhs every month,” claims Ravi. “The real problem though, is availability. Sometimes tankers refuse to come even if we agree to pay Rs 5,000 per load.” Ravi warns that if the government does not intervene and help them find a solution, many more restaurants will shut down.

Associations representing hotels and private water tankers are planning to meet municipal administration minister SP Velumani on Monday. They will be requesting the minister to allow the tankers draw water from agricultural fields in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram.

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Sekhar says his hotel is open for less than six hours these days. “When supply is less, we avoid serving vegetarian meals. Several dishes have to be cooked for meals and that requires a large quantity of water.”