Demand for tanker water dips after a week's spell

According to a Metrowater official, the bookings have come down by at least one third in the last couple of days. “We were receiving around 3,800 to 4,000 booking every day before the rain. Now, we only receive less than 3,000 bookings per day,” the official said.

The sudden dip in the bookings is mainly because of residents storing rainwater in their sumps. Several city residents have posted photographs and video clips of brimmed up sumps on their Twitter handles. One twitter user named Arockia Edwin posted that he had saved more than 50,000 litres of rainwater in his apartment Casagrand Pallagio near Okkiyam-Thoraipakkam on Thursday night. On Thursday night, Chennai DGP office received 5 cm of rainfall while Chennai Airport and Nungambakkam recorded 3 cm.

To supply lorry water to residents, Metrowater has hired 1,150 water tankers with a capacity of 3,000 litres, 6,000 litres and 9,000 litres. Residents should pay Rs 400 to Rs 700 per load based on the capacity of the tanker. The water manager also uses the tanker lorries to provide free supplies. Meanwhile, private water tanker owners, who were also struggling to meet the huge demand for water, are getting lesser bookings.

“Due to the lack of groundwater and non-availability of Metrowater supply, many individual house owners, too, came to us. Now, we receive orders that we could supply,” K Selvaraj, south Chennai secretary of Tamil Nadu Private Tanker Operators Association, said.

Selvaraj added that they are receiving the same number of bookings from apartments and IT firms along Old Mahabalipuram Road but bookings from individual houses in the core city have come down.

“Groundwater level in areas from where we draw water also shows sign of rise. If the same intensity ofrain continues for a few more days, charges of private water would come down as we could find water close to the city,” Selvaraj said.