Water shortages in the Vyasarpadi neighbourhood of North Chennai have been a persistent issue. Most of the housing board settlements lack piped water connections. Residents must collect water from communal taps in the locality or from water tankers that periodically visit.
Typically, it is the women who bear the responsibility of transporting the water to their homes. They are forced to carry many loads of water up many flights of stairs, sometimes having to carry it up to the 13th floor of their buildings.
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This strenuous task has negatively affected their health. One woman had to undergo a hysterectomy, while another suffers from chronic knee pain and body aches.
Moreover, the situation worsens during floods when lifts and electricity fail. Many elderly residents, who often live on the upper floors, are badly hit by the water shortage and struggle to carry water up the 13-storeyed housing board buildings. This has led to severe health issues among the senior citizens here such as blood clots in their feet and, in some cases, fainting from exhaustion.
Water shortage problems affect women
As part of the activities at the storytelling workshop for citizen journalists conducted by Citizen Matters in Vyasarpadi, we created this video, which talks about the hardships faced by women living in these towering housing board settlements.
You can watch the video titled ‘One tap for fifty homes’ here:
[This video was created with assistance from Savitha Ganesh, Engagement Associate at Citizen Matters.]