Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is experiencing severe water shortages as a drought has gripped the city for weeks, with all four of its water reservoirs running dry.  

However, villages in the Thiruvallur district say they’ve seen their groundwater being drained to supply Chennai with drinking water during its crisis. Residents are protesting in a bid to save their groundwater, warning they too will end up in a “Chennai-like situation, where we will have to beg for drinking water,” the Wire reports. 

The residents are angry that the water being taken from their land is transported to shopping malls and sold off. They reportedly learned about this practice when a group of youths followed the trucks to see where the water was going. 

About 100 women protested at a site in Kokkumedu last week where 11 bore-wells were dug just a few months ago. “We understand Chennai’s water-need is greater than ours, and we don’t stand in the way of our water quenching Chennai’s thirst,” Kokkumedu resident Chandresekhar said. “But to supply water meant for our farms to malls is unjust and not acceptable.”

Chennai’s Metro Water department has sent water tankers to extract water from areas deemed ‘safe’ for groundwater development. “We cannot help but supply to malls,” N. Nijalingam, the head of the South Chennai private water-tanks association said. “When Metro Water cannot supply water, we have people coming to us and we will look at all possible ways to meet the demand.” He said that Kokkumedu has an “abundance” of water and denied that hundreds of lorries removed water every day. 

As Chennai residents struggle in the drought, public and private swimming pools have come under fire for remaining open and continuing to replenish their water. 

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