Chennai’s water shortage has turned into an acute water crisis with the city all four reservoirs having nearly dried up. A time-lapse video of Chennai’s Puzhal reservoir shows how the city lost almost all its water in less than a year. Chennai has reportedly lost 3 billion cubic feet of water since September 2018 and water levels in the city’s four reservoirs have dropped below 1% of their capacity.
A satellite image of Puzhal reservoir in Chennai on June 15, 2018, and image the reservoir on April 6, 2019, shows the depletion of lakes in the state. The June 15, 2019 image shows Puzhal reservoir in Chennai during the drought. The Tamil Nadu government said it was largely dependent on groundwater to meet their requirements till the onset of the northeast monsoon in October.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 Satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows Puzhal reservoir in Chennai. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami said that groundwater levels have depleted due to drought and deficient monsoon but claimed the issue was not as big as the media was claiming.
