Thursday, December 07, 2017

Government inactive as Chennai faces climate catastrophe...

"Every time it rains now, the water from the river floods our villages. We know this is because the factories have encroached upon the river’s floodplains,” says S Mahendran, a fisherman in Chennai’s Ennore district.

Ennore is located about 30 kilometers from the city center and makes up one of India’s densest clusters of heavy industry. Among the big-ticket industrial works here are three large ports, an oil terminal, a coal terminal and two thermal power plants. Most of these lie within kilometers of the coast and are notorious for releasing their effluents into the Ennore creek, via which the River Kosasthalaiyar drains into the sea.

Mahendran adds: “With our area being hit by cyclones and floods so often nowadays, god forbid there is any leak. All our villages will be destroyed if that happens.”

Recurring disasters and extreme weather events have become the new normal for the Indian city.

In November and December 2015, Chennai received 170cm of rainfall, leading to its complete inundation. More than 400 people lost their lives due to the heavy rains and floods and it took nearly two weeks for some kind of normality to return to the city. Full story...

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