Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, posted a message on Instagram sharing his concern for the ongoing water crisis in Chennai. He posted a picture of an empty well, surrounded by women trying to draw out water and numerous plastics pots lying on the ground.
He wrote: “Only rain can save Chennai from this situation.” A well completely empty, and a city without water. The southern Indian city of Chennai is in crisis, after the four main water reservoirs ran completely dry. The acute water shortage has forced the city to scramble for urgent solutions and residents have to stand in line for hours to get water from government tanks. As the water levels depleted, hotels and restaurants started to shut down temporarily, and the air con was turned off in the city’s metro. Officials in the city continue to try and find alternative sources of water – but the community continue to pray for rain. Tap the link in our bio to read more about Chennai’s water crisis.
This is the second time a week that the Titanic star has commented on environmental issues in India. Two days ago he had posted about the Ghazipur Garbage Dump in Delhi. He had posted a World Economic Forum video on Instagram which talked about the every growing garbage dump that has become a hill, and about pollution in India in general. The garbage hill is 65 meters tall at present, which is growing at the rate of 10 meters per years. Reports earlier this month had said that the garbage dump will become taller than Tajmahal next year.
DiCaprio is a vocal environmentalist and had spoken about climate change in the UN. He has produced several documentaries on this topic with ‘Ice on Fire‘ being the latest one.
Chennai has been reeling under an acute water shortage after four major reservoirs – Poondi, Chembarambakkam, Puzhal and Cholavaram had completely dried up. Tap waters have gone dry and residents have to depend on tankers for fresh water. The situation is expected to continue until the October-November when the northeast monsoon hits the state.
The DMK had arranged a nationwide protest holding the AIADMK government responsible for the current situation. Despite this, the DMK has also threatened to stage a massive protest if the water is procured from Vellore.
