India is facing an intense summer, with water scarcity.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
A Rs. 100 crore (around $14.71million) steel production company has been shut down in drought-hit Latur district of Maharashtra.
Three plants of the MSM Steel Company have stopped their operation following severe drought following which the company found it extremely difficult to afford 3 lakh liters of water daily, reported The Times of India.
“MSM Steel plants were never shut, except once when an explosion forced their closure for two days,” manager Sudheer Wadgaonkar was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
The company, owned by Mahesh Malang, used to produce 300 tons of steel a day with its strong workforce of 1700. But he found it not viable to run the company using water bought from far off places paying $15 for 5,000 liters. He was facing tough competition from Chinese companies when the water scarcity forced him to shut up the firm.
Most workers of the company are from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and all of them have left Latur.
The company also disconnected its power supply as it had to pay a minimum amount though they didn’t use electricity.
A canteen attached to the plants, that served the 1700 workforce is also in trouble following the shutdown. Laxman Jadhav, who runs the canteen, had earned $147 to $221 a day when the plants were working; he now earns only $3 to $5 a day.
“Now, I earn Rs 200-300 a day. The factory owner doesn’t charge rent. Earlier, I used to pay a rent of Rs 12,000 per month. I am still here in the hope that it will soon rain heavily and the plants will restart,” Jadhav told Times of India.
Maharashtra is one of the states that is facing unprecedented drought. It has even triggered violence in many parts of the state. Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Karnataka are also experiencing severe water scarcity.
A few weeks back, the central government of India had brought water to Latur from New Delhi using train wagons. A heat wave has been reported from different parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Bihar.
Even the state of Kerala, which is famous for its backwaters and 44 rivers, has become insufferably hot. The state government has demanded the central government to declare it a drought-hit state.