Leonardo DiCaprio shares distressing Chennai pic on Instagram, says only rain can save city

The water crisis in Chennai has drawn the attention of Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio who on Wednesday shared a post on his Instagram account highlighting the plight of the people in the state. Citing a BBC news story on the ongoing water scarcity issue in Chennai, DiCaprio said, "Only rain can save Chennai from this situation." Along with the post, he also shared a distressing photo of several women drawing water from a well.

The Titanic actor in his long Instagram post further said, "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."

View this post on Instagram

#Regram #RG @bbcnews: "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. ( Getty Images) #chennai #watercrisis #india #bbcnews

A post shared by Leonardo DiCaprio (@leonardodicaprio) on Jun 25, 2019 at 1:42pm PDT

"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," he added.

Also Watch: Chennai residents receive muddy, sewage water as crisis worsens

DiCaprio who is a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change has been quite vocal about the hazardous impacts of global warming and other environmental issues.

The Chennai water crisis issue has a grabbed a lot of eyeballs from across the world highlighting the grave concern of water scarcity, which poses a grave challenge to the survival of mankind on planet earth.

The city has been on the edge battling acute water shortage for the last few weeks as several reservoirs ran dry largely because of poor monsoon rains last year.

Also Watch: As Chennai struggles with water crisis, AIADMK govt faces heat

Chennai is one of 21 cities that a government think-tank warned last year could run out of groundwater by 2020. This year's monsoon is delayed, further compounding problems across a swathe of western and central India.

Water storage levels in the city's four major reservoirs were one-hundredth of what they were this time last year - and at a mere 0.2% of capacity, according to state government data.

Chennai is entirely dependent on the northeast monsoon which begins in October. The last three months of 2018 received lower than average rainfall, with the deficit rising to as much as 80% in the month of December, according to India's weather office.

Also Read: Leonardo DiCaprio slams Donald Trump over Paris Climate Pact exit, says it's time to fight back

Also Read: Chennai water crisis: DMK stages protest against AIADMK govt, demanded solution

Also Read: Chennai water crisis: TCS, Wipro, other firms cut back on water use as taps run dry