00:01This content is growing among the residents of this South Indian fishing village.
00:08It's been only five days since they blocked the river and the water has already dried up.
00:16It's very unfair that they are bringing this plan.
00:20Everyone here is saying this.
00:22We have been fishing for ages.
00:26You trouble us at sea. You trouble us in the backwater.
00:31Where are we supposed to go?
00:35Many of them have been organizing in a last-ditch effort to block a mega-project near the villages.
00:44The project aims to solve water shortages in the city of Chennai,
00:4820 kilometres to the north, by building a massive reservoir.
00:55They are going to construct a 30-kilometre-long holding structure.
00:58And because of this bund, the region's natural surface runoff,
01:02or tendency to drain rainwater, will totally be transformed.
01:06It will act like a tank.
01:09The city administration wants to harness seasonal rainfall,
01:13which often turns into floods, to supply the city in the summer months,
01:17when the taps run dry.
01:23They hope the plan will make the coastal metropolis more resilient.
01:28The idea is to turn a naturally occurring backwater outside the city into one large reservoir.
01:33But scientists warn that these ecosystems are more than just breakish water.
01:37They need careful protection.
01:40So this act like a suspension.
01:43It absorbs the catastrophic waves, protecting the neighboring landscapes.
01:49It is blocked.
01:51Then the waves will start to take in a different course.
01:56Marine biotechologist T.D. Babu has submitted a petition against the project.
02:00Today he takes us to the heart of a mangrove habitat.
02:03There is a vibrant lagoon, which connects to the Bay of Bengal,
02:10in the north at Mutukadu, and south at Coquilameda.
02:15And both estuarine ecosystem has a natural mangrove habitat.
02:22And you can see lots of crabs and other crustaceans and fishes coming in.
02:32Back in Chennai, activist Raju is busy tracking the effects of urbanization
02:36and development in ecologically sensitive spots.
02:41He says unplanned development and encroachment
02:44has already resulted in irreversible damage at multiple locations.
02:51In the Pallikarnai subbasin, all the floodplains have been destroyed.
02:56For both the Pallikarnai and the Kovalam subbasins,
03:00the Great Salt Lake now acts as a floodplain.
03:05The Great Salt Lake is the main source of income for many families in the area,
03:09especially those who can't afford bigger boats for sea fishing.
03:15In Kovalam, half the population is dependent on the sea,
03:18the other half on the lake.
03:21Those who fish in the lake are exclusively dependent on it.
03:26Fishing and tribal communities from over 15 neighbouring villages along this coast
03:31face similar worries.
03:34Should the locals simply give up their demands for the sake of Chennai?
03:38A city of around 12 million people?
03:42Their concern comes from deja vu.
03:44A massive desalination plant was built nearby to supply the city with drinking water.
03:53Our houses were affected, water quality deteriorated, and the shore-sine fishing,
03:59which we pursue for four months a year, got affected.
04:05All our shore-related livelihoods have deteriorated because of the saltwater desalination plant.
04:13You trouble us at sea, you trouble us at the backwaters, where will we go?
04:23Huge desalination plants and coastal reservoirs may seem like easy fixes to a growing water crisis.
04:29But scientists say that anchoring these megaprojects directly onto vulnerable coastal ecosystems could do more harm than good.
04:40If they are bringing drinking water, we are not opposed to it.
04:43In the towns nearby, there are huge lakes that are as big as our seas.
04:46You can restore them and use them to store and supply fresh water.
04:51Geologists and hydrologists agree with Narayanan.
04:54When it comes to dealing with big issues like climate change, bigger isn't always better.
05:02We can decentralize, we can de-sell the other water bodies in the district and use them for drinking water.
05:08We can also consider taking development to districts other than Chennai.
05:17Bulldozers and dredging machines have begun work at the reservoir.
05:22Locals hope the government will listen to their concerns, finding a balance between protecting communities and supplying water to nearby
05:28Chennai.
05:28In the water supply, we will close the water to the river then they will keep the water.
05:29We will close the water and access to the level of water.
05:31The water is also very killer.
05:31The water is different.
05:31The water is very different in the water.
05:32The water is almost extremely well.
05:32You
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