No. of views : (5070)
Government hospitals in Chennai depending on water tanker more now
Posted on: 25/Jun/2019 10:01:49 AM
This summer has been extremely difficult is known. The water scarcity in Chennai city has made not only the residents to depend on the water tankers but also hospitals, hotels etc. It is now revealed that the dependency of the government hospitals in Chennai city on the water tankers have gone up to 40 percent now.
The water requirements of the government hospitals in Chennai are met by 100 percent and this was stated by some senior officials belonging to the health department. Point to be noted here is many government hospitals situated in Chennai are now depending more on the water supplied by the tankers and on the regular piped supply from metro water.
According to Mr. Edwin Joe, DME, there is now 40% increase in the water tanker supply to the city based hospitals. He spoke about how the number of lorrys needed depended on the requirements of each institution. In a day, the Institute of Child Health gets 10 to 12 lorrys and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospitals gets 25 to 30 lorrys. He then explained about how almost 50 percent of the water on the campus is being consumed by the patients and their attendants.
It was mentioned by Mr. Edwin Joe that the increased dependence on the water tankers was because of dwindling groundwater levels. He revealed about the absence of plans to dig deeper for the purpose of ground water. The information collected is out of 20 bore wells present at the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital or KMC, the water yield has dwindled in atleast 8 to 9 bore wells now.
Dr. Vasanthamani, dean of KMC spoke about how till last month of May just 5 bore wells were only down and how deep digging might not be fruitful. She then threw light on how in the past KMC used to get 5 to 10 lorries in a day and how this has increased to 15 to 20 lorries. This water is sufficient to meet the essential requirements. She explained about how the institution had put in place water conservation measures. The students in the KMC hostels were asked to store water for use instead of using the showers. This was also pointed out by the dean.
Information gathered is 3 to 5 wells have dried up in Stanley Medical College Hospital or SMCH. Every day, SMCH is getting about 40 lorrys. Previously, SMCH was getting just 25 to 30 a day.
It is important to mention here that out of 40 water tanker loads, 20 loads are of 9000 litre capacity and the rest 20 tankers are of 15000 litres capacity. It was later mentioned by a hospital authority that SMCH gets 50000 to one lakh litres of piper water supply from the metro water.
