Watch: Water Crisis In Chennai Forces Residents To Stand In Long Queues For Daily Needs

While some of us sit in the comfort of our air-conditioned homes, the morning newspaper with a cup of coffee our hands, there are people who are lining up to fill buckets and drums with water for daily needs.

The water crisis has reached an extremely alarming level - cities all over the world are running out of water. The rate at which we are using - in fact, misusing - this precious resource, we are going to run out of it very soon. And, then what? How do we plan to survive?

Representational Image- Reuters

The state of Tamil Nadu is one of the worst-hit states this year, and experts have said that this situation has occurred due to dearth of rainfall, drying up of wells and reservoirs. Chennai, in fact, is one of the states likely to run out of ground water by 2020. That's barely six months away.

Residents in Chennai have to wait for water tankers to arrive and then queue up for hours together, to collect their daily water supply in buckets or pitchers.

A video that went viral on social media shows what the situation currently looks like. The 1-minute-46-second-long video, shows how people have formed a queue that stretches well over a kilometer along the roadside, to collect their daily water supply.

Water pots and utensils queueing up for kilometres, in one of the largest motropolitan cities of India, Chennai. #WaterCrisis looming large on 'new' India. pic.twitter.com/YcjCuMfXMQ

¡ª Vimlendu Jha (@vimlendu) June 24, 2019

The video has till now garnered 8,893 views and 400 likes, with people showing their concern about this situation.

1.

We have taken enough water from the soil...it's Time to return what we have taken. #groundwater

¡ª Sfoorti Mishra (@Editspeak) June 25, 2019

2.

#waterCrisiS. IS MAN MADE AND THE OUTCOME OF EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES WITHOUT WISDOM.

¡ª NARAYAN CHANDRA ROY (@NARAYAN34611062) June 25, 2019

3.

local authorities take easy way out, cause if they start implementing laws, then it will end up in total mess

¡ª ajay (@JayChennai) June 25, 2019

4.

How about rethinking use of ROs that waste more than 50 percent of the water

¡ª Ritu Mathur (@RituMathur4) June 24, 2019

5.

This thing is happening for real . And in a city like chennai it's actually a sad part . In fact it's been like 5 days since the first rain .

¡ª bijliwala (@WAKEUPHARSHAL3) June 25, 2019

6.

Sad & scary situation. River linking should be taken up on priority!!!

¡ª Sandesh Shiva (@SandeshShiva) June 24, 2019

7.

90%+ is the literacy rate¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­water mismanagement!

¡ª Monika kaul (@Monikakaul6) June 24, 2019

The water crisis is so bad that the IT companies have also told their employees to work from home, to save water and limit the use of water in bathrooms. One of the main reasons that the city is facing the water crisis is the lack of awareness about rainwater harvesting.

To combat water crisis, all it takes is a simple initiative of rainwater harvesting. There are also many added benefits to this method of conserving water, it¡¯s a relatively free and clean source, you have complete control over your water supply and it¡¯s environment-friendly too.

Representational Image- Reuters

Meanwhile, residents of Sabari Terrace in Chennai's Sholinganallur area have also shown just how effective rainwater harvesting can be in a state of severe water crisis. The apartment complex which started investing in a rainwater harvesting system in November 2017 are more than just thankful for it.

According to an NDTV report, the rainwater system in the complex helped the residents collect thirty thousand litres in a little over an hour, by harvesting every drop of rain from their 25,000 square foot terrace.

All of us should learn something from what the residents of Tamil Nadu are facing right now and work towards changing that for the better.