Doctors At Indian Hospitals And Clinics Forced To Buy Water For Surgeries, Patient Needs
Along with other doctors in Indian cities facing unprecedented water shortages, T.N. Ravisankar in Chennai is praying for rain — and soon. Treating patients will "depend on God's mercy" if water supplies in India's fourth-largest metropolis aren't replenished shortly, said Ravisankar, the chairman of Sudar Hospitals, a chain of four clinics with 150 beds. Piped water at his hospitals has already dried up, and even the more expensive water trucks he now relies on may be unavailable soon in the state of Tamil Nadu.
"The cost escalation will have to be passed on to patients, who will have to spend more," Ravisankar said. "If the situation continues, after a month we won't be able to serve patients."
Failed rains last year and delays in this year's annual monsoon have left nearly half of India facing drought-like conditions, according to the South Asia Drought Monitor. Tamil Nadu is trapped in a "severe dry" cycle along with other states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Up north, India's capital New Delhi has recorded the worst monsoon delay in 45 years. With piped water supply available to less than a fifth of Delhi homes, political parties have traded barbs with the state government over the lack of planning for water-truck supplies to large swaths of the city.
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Almost all of Chennai's hospitals are now completely dependent on the more than 5,000 privately-owned tankers that ferry water around the city every day, according to N. Nijalingam, president of the Tamil Nadu Private Water Tanker Lorry Owners' Association. But it's becoming tougher to source water even from 100 kilometers (62 miles) away, he said. "If the situation continues, after a month we won't be able to supply water even to the people who can pay a huge sum for a tanker of water," he said.
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https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2019/07/11/stories/1060722071
= new reply since forum marked as read
Water...
Too little or too much too quickly....
