Coronavirus in Chennai: OMR techies prepare to work from home – Times of India

CHENNAI: With IT companies beginning to tell employees to work from home and the state government thinking of shutting schools and colleges, the city is gearing up for a change in lifestyle — all of a sudden.
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Since a majority of IT employees reside near OMR, resident associations are concerned water availability and sewage disposal will be hit.

Resident welfare associations have begun taking various measures to maintain better standards of hygiene. Federation of OMR Residents Associations, a collective of associations, has anticipated a jump in demand for water if IT firms ask employees to work from home. Its coordinator Harsha Koda said water usage will increase by almost 40%.
“Our apartment complex gets about 30,000 litres of water a day during weekdays. This increases by 15,000 litres on weekends. Now, our daily requirement would be 50% more on weekdays if IT workers start work from home,” he said.
OMR has 400 apartment complexes, many of them highrises with several hundreds of houses, from Madhya Kailash to Tiruporur. It is home to more than four lakh people. Of them, 80% are employed in IT firms. About 3,000 private water tankers make 10,000 trips a day supplying around 120MLD of water to residential towers and IT parks. “This apart, more food delivery executives will come. We are planning to raise the number of security guards to enhance protection,” Koda added.
In localities such as Sholinganallur, water auditing has started to check leakage. Sujatha, secretary of Central Park Apartment Owners Association, said hand sanitisers have been installed in every block of their apartment complex. “We are checking the recent travel history of both occupants and visitors. Water auditing has been advanced to March from May as fixing leakages would save water,” she said.
Residents’ associations in other parts of the city have begun to take proactive measures to prevent spread of Covid-19. An association in Anna Nagar has put off celebrations and cultural events to avoid mass gatherings. K V Pari, president of Sivagami Nagar Public Welfare Association at Medavakkam, said an emergency meeting is likely to be called next week. “Though everyone is aware that frequent washing of hands is the need of hour, not many are doing it. We want to sensitise our residents regarding its necessity,” he said.