Why Chennai's IT corridor is facing shutdown

CHENNAI: Chennai's information technology corridor, promoted by Tamil Nadu as a world-class tech destination, is waking up to the possibility of nightmarish water shocks. Businesses in the Old Mahabalipuram Road corridor, which generates billions of dollars in revenueFortune 500 clients in the US and Europe, almost shut down work a week ago when they very nearly ran out of water. A delegation of IT executives is planning to meet government officials this week seeking a solution to the problem. 

IT companies along the OMR corridor, including Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant and Infosys, rely on a rickety system of water supply: tankers. But a 52-hour strike by water tanker operators had them staring at a water crisis. One more day of the strike, and a shutdown was looking ominously likely. 

According to datasoftware industry body Nasscom, about three-fourths of Tamil Nadu's 50,000-crore exports (second only to Karnataka) are shipped out of OMR. On that basis, a business-less day would have cost the industry over 100 crore. 

The day might have been saved but the episode has put the spotlight on India's water woes and conflicts. A 2011 study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry found that 60% of the respondents felt the availability of water was impacting their business. Eighty-seven percent felt it would be a problem by 2021. "The crisis faced in Chennai (OMR stretch) by the industry, due to the strike by ground water tanker suppliers, is typical of the water conflicts arising everywhere in India," said Rohini Nilekani, chairwoman of Arghyam, a publicitable foundation working in the water and sanitation sector. 

The OMR crisis was about the over-dependence on the informal sector to deliver the goods. For years, Chennai has depended on tanker lorries for water. OMR, even more so, because Chennai's official supplier is absent in that area. Borewells aren't allowed there, nor are water treatment mechanisms available. 

So, for years now, hundreds of tankers, which sourced fresh waternearby villages, sustained life in OMR. Paying .`250-400 for12,000 litre, the tankers made at least double that amount supplying water in the city.