Serving the community since 1926
VOLUME 97 | ISSUE 31
WEEK OF JULY 4, 2024
$2
What makes a sister city?
Denver and Chennai celebrate their 40th anniversary as sister cities
BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON PARK PROFILE
Sriram Madhivanan volunteers with the Chennai Committee of the Denver Sister Cities International organization to spread the history and culture of Chennai, India, which is COURTESY OF DENVER SISTER CITIES INTERNATIONAL one of Denver’s sister cities.
Denver-based Sriram Madhivanan takes exceptional pride in his home city of Chennai. Chennai is a sprawling city, nestled along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Southeast India (State of Tamil Nadu). In 2017, Madhivanan moved to Denver from Chennai at 27 years old for work, looking forward to a new adventure. Madhivanan has spent the past eight years embedding himself in Colorado’s culture while also aiming to spread the history and culture of Chennai to Coloradans. “My own Tamil culture has a recorded history of over 2,500 years. My state is known for all the beautiful medieval and ancient temples and large faithful population,” said Madhivanan. “At the same time, the population’s rationalism and ingrained secularism shows through its politics, which has been dominated by rationalist, atheistic, welfare-oriented parties and political leaders since the 60s.” Madhivanan added that his state is the most industrialized in the country and also has the second largest economy. “It pioneered universal voting rights without any exceptions while under British occupation in 1921, when British women themselves didn’t have any voting rights,” Madhivanan said. “So my language, beliefs, values, outlook and politics is closely tied to my home state and quite distinct from even neighboring cultures.”
Much of Colorado could be pushed into drought by late summer BY SHANNON MULLANE THE COLORADO SUN
Colorado has seen an average water year so far, but looking ahead, climate experts say much of the state could fall into drought conditions and struggle to find relief. Colorado’s very average snowpack has officially melted away from all 115 federal snow monitoring stations in the state, as of this week. Reservoir levels are at 94%, just slightly below average, while precipitation was at exactly 100% of the 30-year median, according to a recent Water Conditions Monitoring Committee meeting. Heat, however, has been on the rise. Even summer showers may not be enough to combat its effects, or to keep the state away from drought. “Really the entire state is at risk of developing drought this summer,” Assistant State Climatologist Becky Bolinger told listeners during the meeting. “A strong monsoon would be really helpful. It would limit that risk of worsening drought, particularly over the Four Corners. … For now, it’s looking like that is not as likely, and that it’s going to be a pretty rough summer.” Climate experts track precipitation, temperature, soil moisture and other factors year-round to gauge water supplies and storage for farmers, city utility managers, reservoir operators and residents around the state. This year’s outlook has some of those water users looking out for impacts to fish populations, recreation opportunities, irrigation supplies and wildfires.
SEE SISTER CITY, P12
VOICES: 8 | LIFE: 10 | CALENDAR: 13
SEE DROUGHT, P6
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