Tamil Nadu faces worst drought in 140 years, Chennai drinking water supply restricted by 50%

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Chennai: Chennai is facing an acute crisis of drinking water since past few months. 

All the four lakes in the city have been dried up and drinking water supply to the state capital has been slashed by almost 50 percent. 

According to NDTV, Chennai, that requires 830 million litres of water on a daily basis, has been getting only half of it for the past few days from authorities. In some areas, the piped water is being supplied only once in three days. At least 300 water tankers have been deployed by the authorities to supply water in the city. 

The Veeranam lake in Neyveli, a town that is located at around 200 km away, from where Chennai receives supply through a huge pipeline, has turned dry too. 

The authorities, however, are tapping other resources in the area to pump 90 million litres a day to Chennai through the same pipeline.

Earlier this month, the Egmore railway station, which needs 7.5 lakh litres of water a day, was facing a huge crisis.

The groundwater in Chennai and its surrounding areas is replenished by five lakes -- Puzhal, Sholavaram, Kaliveli, Pulicat and Maduranthakam -- all located within a 60-km radius of the city. 

In 2015, the lakes had overflowed due to unseasonal rains, causing devastating floods in Chennai.

In 2016, both the North East monsoon and the South West monsoon failed in Tamil Nadu, leaving is with a huge water crisis. 

Besides, there are thousands of water bodies in Chennai. Green activists claim that had these water bodies been maintained, the city would have never suffered from water crisis. 

The activists blame rapid urbanization for the lack of upkeep of these water bodies.