The quest is no longer for potable water. With even borewells that used to yield highly saline water going dry in most places, people are looking to move to apartment complexes in the city that have supply of any kind of water at least for a few hours a day.
Realtors say rentals are rising in apartment complexes that are able to ensure water supply to residents. “There is demand for apartments where the residents’ welfare associations are able to ensure water supply. Customers are asking us to identify only such apartments. But cost of maintenance is going up in such apartments on account of increasing water charges. All these have resulted in indirect increase in rentals,” said Jayant Hemdev, business director, Hemdev’s Real Estate.
Residents in some of the swanky suburbs are eyeing the core areas of the city, where the borewells still yield some water or the tanker service is better. “What can one do when there is no water for your ablutions and daily chores? You end up shifting to better places,” says K Hari, whose search for a rental apartment in the city started two weeks ago. He is desperate to move out of OMR. A resident of an apartment complex in Vepery says he moved into it only a month ago. His search for another apartment complex has already started as there is no water in the present one.
Scarcity is not caused merely by reduction in water supply by Metrowater. Drying up of borewells across the city and its suburbs has compounded the problem. When Metrowater used to supply 830 MLD of water in the past, Chennai residents used to also tap groundwater from borewells at will. But the borewells are drying up and, municipal administration minister S P Velumani admits, Metrowater supply has fallen to 525 MLD (million litres a day).
The secretary of a residential complex near Anna Nagar says, “Of late, we have been noticing that there is an influx of people into our building. On inquiry, we came to know that most of them are relatives of our members. They have moved into our building from different parts of the city in search of water. It is a strain on our pocket because cost of maintenance is shooting up. We never used to buy water from tankers. But last month, we spent Rs2.5 lakh on tankers and this month it is expected to touch Rs6 lakh. Our corpus reserves are fast depleting. The only way out is to reduce water supply. If there is water scarcity, outsiders will naturally leave.”
Meanwhile, all major hyper-malls and departmental stores have been reporting huge sales of buckets, pots and other containers used to store water.
