CHENNAI: The water crisis in Chennai is often looked at in isolation by its residents, while it is far bigger and involves protecting the entire biosphere, said experts here on Wednesday speaking at a discussion on “Towards Water-Secure Tamil Nadu, Challenges and Solutions,” organised by Swaraj Abhiyan, a sociopolitical organisation.
“We have been talking about water scarcity alone for over a decade. But water is only one of the many components of the biosphere we live in. And it is becoming more and more inhabitable day by day,” said Professor S Janakarajan, president, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resource Studies.
He said one of the most important steps towards prevention of water depletion is to decrease consumption of “virtual water,” he said. “It takes nearly 15 litres of water to produce one bottle of mineral water. Similarly, everything we use takes up a lot more water than we think it does.”
G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, an environmental advocacy organisation, said citizens must partake in water conservation strategies. “Tamil Nadu has blundered in terms of water resource planning. It is facing the worst ever drought in the last few years. Nothing was done to augment the capacity,” he said.