Coimbatore Corporation, Siruthuli, and a few other organisations have come together to clean Valankulam tank before the North East Monsoon.
According to sources, the corporation had begun removing debris from the west end of the tank, which had been compartmentalised into three sections.
The work begun a couple of days ago after environment activists and others pointed to indiscriminate debris dumping into the tank.
Siruthuli’s managing trustee Vanitha Mohan said that the task before the team was to remove the waste and excavate the earth from the tank to restore as much of its original water holding capacity as possible.
The tank had been estimated to hold 27.75 million cubic feet of water. But now that had been reduced to around 15 million cubic feet by railway line, link road, Sungam-Ukkadam Bypass Road, and encroachments by both government and private establishments.
At present, the work was going on between Vincent Road and the railway line - the western end of the tank called Chinna Kulam, which was around 30 acre, said K. Mylswami of Siruthuli.
The corporation was removing the debris from the Chinna Kulam and from near the Highways Colony and taking it to the Sewage Farm in Ukkadam. In the coming days, the corporation would deploy more machinery to remove as much waste as possible.
Simultaneously, the Siruthuli and other organisations would involve more machinery to excavate as much earth as possible to increase the tank’s storage, the sources said.
The target had been set at five lakh metre cube of earth.
As part of the cleaning operation, the Valankulam tank’s surplus weir and its outlet channel were being kept ready to let out surplus water it gets.
Valankulam gets water that flows as surplus from the Big Tank and through inlet channels from near the government hospital, Big Bazaar Street and Good Shed Road and Vincent Street.
