With the water crisis bringing almost all of Tamil Nadu to its knees, incidents of people fighting and injuring themselves over the precious resource have begun to crop up. In a shocking incident, a 28-year-old woman was stabbed by her neighbour over a water-related dispute in Chennai. According to the Hindu, the man who attacked the woman is Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal’s driver. 

According to reports, the incident took place on Thursday night in an apartment in Shankar Nagar in Anakaputhur. At 10.30 pm, Mohan, a resident in one of the houses in the two-storey building went to the ground floor to switch the motor on, as the building had no water in its tank. His neighbour, Adimoola Ramakrishnan, opposed this, claiming that the sump was empty and picked a fight with him. As the fight reportedly grew louder, Mohan’s wife Subhashini went to the ground floor and pressed for the motor to be switched on.

In a fit of rage, Ramakrishnan went to his house, brought a knife and attacked Subhashini on her face. Hearing her scream, others who live in the building rushed to her rescue. Subhashini was immediately taken to the hospital and administered six stitches for the injury while Adimoola Ramakrishnan was arrested by Shankar Nagar police on Friday.

This is not the first incident of violence that has taken place in Tamil Nadu over water this summer. Earlier this month, 33-year-old social activist Anand Babu was beaten to death by a family of four after he objected to them drawing water in plastic barrels from an overhead tank. Anand Babu, who operated the overhead tank, allegedly told the family that it was not correct to take huge quantities of water for themselves when the state is struggling due to severe water shortage. The conversation escalated to a brawl and Anand Babu was beaten to death using wooden logs by the four men. Anand Babu’s father, who came to his rescue, was also attacked by the four men.