I was actually a bit surprised to see how many recs and comments my diary about the Asian Water Crisis got earlier in the week. I decided to write a followup because of one astounding thing that happened ( spoiler alert? I’ll tell you what is was, below!)
In the meantime, I thought I would give you a geography lesson about Chennai. It was formerly known as “Madras” under British rule, and it is “the gateway to Tamil Nadu.” I haven’t been there, but I took a week out of my time in Kerala in 2014 to make a side trip to Bangalore, where much of the culture is similar the Chennai.
(as an aside … go to Kerala…. go to Kerala…..) Kerala, by the way, does not seem to be having a water shortage, in fact it’s the Venice of India, but that is for another story.
Silicon Valley
Bangalore is more well known these days because of the investment in I.T. services and they are a major powerhouse of India computing brainpower. Bangalore is “The Silicon Valley of India,” and yes, they too are on the list of impending water shortages. In ten words or less, all the Indian guys that got their PhD at a University in USA returned home and formed IT businesses. Chennai, it turns out, also has an IT hub.
Here is a quick rundown of the local culture of Chennai — en.wikipedia.org/..
Penmanship of South India.
I had a problem in Bangalore — the language. My hosts were putting me up in a hotel five km from the teaching site and while they picked me up in the morning, I usually took a tempo back at the end of the day. Nobody spoke English; that was to be expected. But nobody spoke Hindi either. At least, not in my neighborhood. And my phone chip didn’t work there. I was worried that if I got lost I would not be able to give directions to my hotel. So, one of my students wrote out a note using Kennada script, the kind of note you might pin to the sweater of a first-grader that was unaccompanied.
I was utterly enchanted to watch her compose the “round writing” script. I had no idea….. I suppose it helped that she was also attractive, intelligent and vivacious, but — that is another digression.
Round Writing
In 2016 in the Terai region of Nepal, one of my Indian colleagues told me he was also from Bangalore. (Yes, I had worked with him for five years but it had simply never come up). So I asked if he would demonstrate the process of producing the Kennada script, supplying an appropriate phrase that American viewers would appreciate. (and — you tell me — is this not the most amazing way to produce letters?)
Little did I know at the time. It was all so innocent back then.
So, I do have more connection to that region of India than I realized when I wrote the first blog on the water crisis.
Now the original diary (earlier this week) was about the scientific report issued by the India Government which does make dire predictions that the countrywide crisis will be in India in 2020. There was the time lapse satellite video of the complete disappearance of a major reservoir. Ten million people are affected. Next year this will spread to twenty major cities. It is a catastrophe.
If the monsoon fails and the Himalaya, (2,382 kms to the north), does not get adequate snow, ten major river systems will go dry. 1.3 billion people will be affected including people in China along the Yellow River and the Yangtse. So — this is a BFD as some would say.
Turns out the crisis has been sneaking up for awhile. Chennai is right on the ocean — the Bay of Bengal. But it depends on the monsoon to provide the “fetch” and get the water from the Bay to the land. The last two monsoons were unsatisfactory. They did see this coming. We just didn’t really hear about it in USA because it’s not on our radar. (if the South Asia news story is not about Everest, nobody in USA wants to read it).
This American folk song comes to mind:
And this in turn, reminds me of the old Zen saying. We take water for granted.
In South Asia, people do not have paper cups, and a convention as to how to share water from a pitcher has developed. There is a way to do it without touching your lips to the container.
Don’t get me started on swimming in the Ganges from the ghats of Varanasi….
Back to Chennai
Anyway, for more of a personal non-statistical view of what living in a water crisis is like, here are some videos.
Two Minute video on Chennai —
Her is another, discussing wellboring strategy.
Chennai also has an IT corridor, and this video interviews middleclass Indians to show how they adjust and cope. I think of New York City when I see this; New York has adopted a longterm strategy to bring water to the city via deep deep tunnels, hastened by the need to prevent a similar kind of water shortage.
You can’t Make this up
And finally, in the above video they reported that the local government asked every Hindu temple and shrine in the region to open up and perform a puja asking the Gods for rain. The first round was evidently not a success, so they did it again. About a day later, this happened:
It’s Hardly Over
Let’s not kid ourselves. One day of prayer and one day of rain will not fix anything. The need will not go away. The overall climate change has many manifestations including massive flooding in the Great Plains and heat waves in Europe.
What I do here
You may be curious how I landed here. ( some days I ask myself this exact question). I teach nursing in the USA, and in summer time I teach critical care skills to nurses and doctors in Nepal. This summer I am doing something I don’t normally do — trying to crowdfund an “Airway Management Trainer” for a medical college here. Please click on it and consider contributing.