Water crisis in Chennai: IT employees asked to work from home

Owing to lack of rainfall for over six months, Chennai is currently experiencing water shortage. This has resulted in IT companies in the city asking over 5000 of its employees to work from home for the next 100 days.

“The last time IT companies asked employees to work from home was during a strike called by private tankers four years ago,” according to a report. The 600 IT and ITeS firms on OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) employ nearly 3 lakh people. 30 million liters of water are consumed every day in the OMR area, of which 20 million liters are supplied just to the IT parks and other companies. “Companies are using treated water for almost 55 percent of their needs and monitoring real-time use,” said co-founder and CEO of Greenvironment, a tech-based water management start-up. A few companies have employed a water-conserving device which minimizes the flow of water from the taps, ensuring that plenty of water is saved in the process. Over 5000 employees from 12 IT firms have been asked to from home the next three months, according to their convenience, so long as they met their targets.

The chief executive officer of an IT firm said that the company is looking for available management policies in order to meet their needs. “It is being pursued as water-starved OMR is frequently hit by flash strikes of water tanker associations in the absence of adequate water sources in the vicinity,” he said.