CHENNAI: Asma wakes up at 3 am every day to offer prayers before starting her fast for Ramzan. Prior to this, she needs to wash her hands and legs. But due to acute water shortage, sometimes she has to forgo fasting as there is no water even to clean herself.
“On some days, I brush my teeth at work. At times, I have to carry three to four buckets to my room on the second floor when I’m fasting. It is difficult but I cannot afford to rent a house,” said Asma, who has been staying at a ladies hostel at Adambakkam for the past five years.
Similar stories tumbled out of 5,000-odd hostels across Chennai, a majority of which are closing down because of the water crisis. Many men’s and ladies hostels especially in Ekkaduthangal, Saidapet, Alandur, Adambakkam, Kolathur, Ramapuram, Porur and OMR are struggling to provide water for basic activities.
At a loss
Ten days back, two hostels at Saidapet and one at Adambakkam closed down because their borewells — some at even 300 ft — had gone dry. With taps running dry and private tanker water becoming a thing of luxury, hostel residents are moving out. Hostel association members said close to 10-15 hostels had closed down since March.Many hostel members have shifted to paying guest accommodations, in the hope of at least one bath a day. “Hostel owners are already running around to get a permit from the authorities. We are struggling to get water from private tankers. Because of such obstacles, many owners are leaving the business altogether. Some of the workers at these hostels come from neighbouring districts, but now their headcount has also come down by 30 per cent,” said Shobhana Madhavan, president of Tamil Nadu Hostel
Owners Welfare Association.
The deepening crisis and no permission from the state government to tap groundwater has spiked the price of water from private tankers. Due to this, hostel owners are paying close to `2,000 more for every load of water and, in turn, charging every member an extra `500-`1,000 for the past two months. “Ten days ago, when the water tanker arrived at the hostel around 2 am, the driver demanded `5,000 and refused to give us water otherwise. I had no other choice but to pay him. In such dire situations, we are forced to reduce the supply drastically,” said Sivakumar V, manager of a hostel in Saidapet, who is planning to shut down.
Hygiene compromised
In many other hostels, drastic measures are being taken to keep water usage at a bare minimum. This includes shutting off supply for western toilets, using only a few taps, washing clothes in the washing machine only twice a week and providing supply for one hour in the morning and evening. This has raised serious hygiene concerns for women. Proprietors of many working women’s hostels said that more women members have been vacating hostels to stay on rent in areas where the issue is less severe.“During periods, we find it hard to manage with a few buckets of water for a whole day. Also, the quality is very poor. Some of my friends from OMR are staying for a few days in a week with their relatives in the city. Many haven’t told their parents about the situation as they ask them to quit their job and come back home,” said Bhargavi Ramesh, an IT employee who stays at a hostel in T Nagar.