Reports were rife recently that many parts of the country including Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu among others are about to be hit by severe water crisis. And, Chennai has already reeled under drought and an extreme shortage of water. Locals stand in queue for hours to fill water from the tankers for their daily use. A community has also tried to curb the crisis by a small scale water harvesting technique that had helped them collect 25,000 Litres of rainwater in just 1 hour!
But the water crisis in the city is so severe that IT firms, schools and even hospitals are facing extreme difficulties in fetching water for their essential use. In fact, doctors and surgeons from the reputed hospitals in the city are compelled to buy water to carry out surgeries and other medical procedures.
Dr. Ravisankar, chairman of Sudar hospitals in Tambaram told TOI that they have left the situation to the “mercy of God”. This certainly shows how the conditions have worsened in the city.
“The cost escalation will have to be passed on to patients, who will have to spend more. If the situation continues, after a month we won’t be able to serve patients,” doctor Ravishankar said.
The hospitals have said that they have somehow managed to buy water from the tankers by far, but the skyrocketing prices of water would soon make them raise the hospital service fees for the patients. This would in turn create financial trouble for many patients in the city.
On average, a hospital with 30 beds in Chennai is spending anywhere from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 a day on water as the supply of piped water has diminished.
“That would mean up to Rs 4.5 lakh a month. It is impossible to absorb that loss every month. We will have to pass it on to our patients,” Dr Ravisankar told TOI. Moreover, borewells are almost dry at VHS Hospital in Taramani and Mohamed Rela Institute of Medical Sciences in Chromepet.
A hospital uses gallons of water to keep the floor, equipment, and surroundings clean and sterile. The severe water crisis has made all this almost non-achievable in the past few months in the city. They have, however, been taking steps like putting save water signs on the taps, fixing the leakages of water pipes in the hospital and so on.
Hospitals spend around 200 liters of water on patients who undergo dialysis. Doctors say that 50% of the city’s water isn’t safe for medical use. Moreover, the southern states have received 30% less rainfall than the normal levels.
“Right now, there’s an emergency so the government is bringing water by trains,” Ravisankar said referring to supplies that are typically reserved for drinking water instead of hospitals. “But beyond this? It’s all left to nature,” he added.
N. Nijalingam, president of the Tamil Nadu Private Water Tanker Lorry Owners’ Association said that almost all the hospitals in Chennai depend upon water tankers for their regular supply of water.
It’s high time we take the problem of water crisis seriously and actively look for solutions to save and conserve water.