Some farmers sell water to water dealer in chennai.what are it's effect on local people?
Answers
Over the last decade, even as water scarcity grips much of the world, it’s become commonplace in the developed world to criticize bottled water as an unnecessary extravagance and a solid waste blight. The United Nations, which asserts that access to clean water is a basic human right, has also critiqued the role water bottling companies play in privatizing a public resource in short supply.
In Chennai and other major cities in Tamil Nadu, bottling and privatization are issues of public concern. But they principally orbit the production of American-branded soft drinks, especially Coca-Cola and Pepsi, a conflict to be further explored in a later “Choke Point: Tamil Nadu” report.
When it comes to drinking water, the public conversation is still urgent and substantive, but different. This fast-growing Bay of Bengal coastal city is now prone to serious and frequent drinking water disruptions from drought, floods, and electricity blackouts. The morality and ethics of water bottling are overwhelmed by the more immediate torments of short supplies, high prices, and the effects of indiscriminate pumping on the region’s vulnerable groundwater reserves. Chennai is a graphic example of how a big developing city copes when escalating demographic trends intersect ruinous, climate-related ecological conditions. Residents of Chennai, in other words, do not take water for granted. Ever.
“Is it okay to have lots of bottled water in a place where safe and affordable tap water isn’t available to all?” asked Peter Gleick, founder and chief scientist at the non-profit Pacific Institute and author of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession With Bottled Water. “This is a mixed bag. Without a doubt, private water suppliers, including bottlers, rush to fill a demand for safe water when governments fail to do so. But this still leaves the poorest without access, or having to spend too high a fraction of their income to have access to safe water.”
“Another downside is the impact on nearby rural communities where private water suppliers tend to go to get water. This affects these often disadvantaged communities. It also affects local ecosystems.”