Chennai’s water woes as seen from 36,000-km above the parched ground

The eyes in orbit saw it unfolding. Those on the ground just missed it.

As authorities waited for monsoon to ease the city's water crisis, satellite imagery showed how Chennai's main reservoirs shrank bone-dry over the past one year.

Remember, Tamil Nadu is not immune to disasters. From tsunamis and floods to severe water crises, this southern state has borne the brunt of extreme conditions.

The present water crisis in Chennai adds to the long list of dry years in this metropolis, but with a difference - the warnings up from space were apparently ignored.

Experts blame man-made factors for the city's two extreme conditions - water crisis and floods.

With the help of water repository agency Global Surface Water Explorer, India Today's Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) analysed 34 years of water volumes of Chennai's four major storage reservoirs - Poondi, Cholavaram, Puzhal and Chemarambakam.

More than 20 lakh people in Chennai struggle for fresh water for at least two months every 2-3 years, with the situation worsening further due to a rapidly expanding urban population.

Supporting a population of about 50 lakh, this sixth largest city in India needs 80 crore litres of water daily, but can provide only 52.5 crore - that too is reducing at a drastic pace.

Poor water management has rendered Chennai one of the most water-stressed cities not only in India but in the world.

Nutan Maurya, an environmental anthropologist working on urban water issues and associated with The University of Chicago Center in Delhi, explains, "This crisis is more due to mismanagement, as 80 per cent of our surface water is polluted. The haste to concretise urban space has shrunk green areas and reduced options of aquifer recharge. Recycled wastewater can be a source, but about 70 per cent of the wastewater goes down untreated to rivers and other water bodies, resulting in contamination of those and loss of resource too."