Adding fuel to the election fury in Tamil Nadu would be the severe water shortage staring at the State. The Indian Meteorological Department has said that the rainfall received by Tamil Nadu during the North East Monsoon for 2018-2019 was less than 24 per cent of the normal rainfall and this point towards drought .

An official of the IMD also warned that Tamil Nadu would be facing a severe water scarcity than what it had to bear in 2017. Since the rainfall was less this year, the four reservoirs which provide water to Chennai city have almost dried up. All the four reservoirs have water to feed the city for just less than a month, according to an official of the Metro Water, the agency in charge of  the water requirements of the Metropolis.

It may sound strange but the Tamil Nadu Government has turned a blind eye towards this reality, said TKS Elangovan, MP and senior DMK leader. Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy submitted a  memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday listing 16 demands.  “While the chief minister has demanded Bharat Ratna for C N Annadurai and J Jayalalithaa as the top priorities,  he has avoided mentioning about the water scarcity staring at the State,” Elangovan told The Pioneer.

Other than demanding  the scrapping of the permission given by the Central Water Commission to Karnataka to prepare the detailed project report of the Mekedattu reservoir which the latter wants to build across Cauvery River and the permission to Kerala to go ahead with the survey for  constructing a new dam in place of the 125 year old Mullaperiyar Dam, the memorandum by Palaniswamy is silent about the inter linking of peninsular Indian rivers to resolve the water scarcity faced by Tamil Nadu, pointed out Elangovan.

He said though the need of the hour was to take steps to increase the availability of water in Cauvery, the Chief Minister has failed to make the Centre take up the issue. According to Elangovan, this could be done  by inter linking the Netravati  and Cauvery rivers. G Kishor Babu, editor, World Focus, pointed out that the Centre could easily take up the inter linking of Netravati and Cauvery. “It is a win-win situation for all. Currently more than 100 TMC Ft (Thousand Million Cubic Feet) water from Netravati is wasted into Arabian sea. If this water is diverted to Cauvery, both Karnatakla and Tamil Nadu stand to gain a lot,” said Babu who has been writing about it for quite many years.