Current Science

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On 19 June 2019, ‘Day Zero’ was declared in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The four main water reservoirs had cracked open with dryness – there was no water left in the city. The news shocked and surprised many because as late as 2015, Chennai was flooded and more than 300 lives were lost. These flood and drought disasters in the city did not occur suddenly; rather they happened gradually through depleting groundwater, drying rivers and vanishing wetlands, much like a predator closing in, openly visible, yet invisible by its apparent quiescence.
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