Households continue to pollute Tiruchi's Uyyakondan canal

Even as an ambitious rehabilitation project is under way.

NO LET-UP: Drainage water from houses being let into the Uyyakondan canal at Iruthiyapuram in Tiruchi even as renovation work is under way. Photo: B. Velankanni Raj

Even while a project to rehabilitate and modernise the city stretch of the Uyyakondan canal is under way, household sewage is still let into it.

The project, launched after a public outcry over the pollution to the canal, being viewed as Tiruchi’s Cooum, is aimed at renovation and preventing flow of sewage and dumping of solid waste into it. The canal runs for a distance of about 71 km from Pettavaithalai to Vazhavanthankottai and has an ayacut of 32,000 acres and feeds 36 tanks. Several open drains and sewage from houses were let directly into the canal on a seven-km stretch between Palakkarai and Ariyamangalam.

In 2014, voluntary organisations launched a campaign to clean up the urban stretch of the Uyyakondan canal and raise awareness against letting sewage into the canal. The district administration and the City Corporation bolstered the initiative by forming ‘Uyyakondan Protection Committee’ comprising officials and representatives of civic organisations.

34 places identified

The Corporation announced that it had identified 34 places where sewerage flowed into the canal and steps would be taken to plug them. The Public Works Department issued notices to about 200 to 300 residents living along the canal, asking them to stop discharging sewage into the canal.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced a modernisation project to renovate the canal and the PWD launched the project at an estimated cost of Rs.11.50 crore. Initially, the PWD cleared the bunds along the canal from Puthur Weir to Anna Nagar.

Apart from removing silt, the project also involved construction of retaining walls and lining the bed for 1,250 metres in the Palakkarai area where the canal was subject to heaviest urban pollution. Work on construction of the retaining walls is still under way.

However, open drains could still be seen flowing into the canal. With no water being released into the canal, the blackish sewage can be seen flowing along the Palakkarai area. Civic activists feel that unless the sewage flow was fully prevented, the project will never achieve its objective.

M. Sekaran, president, Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations, and member of Uyyakondan Protection Committee, said that the committee had been impressing upon the Corporation to prevent sewage flow in the canal. The committee could also function more effectively with vigour, he felt.

When contacted, an officer of the Corporation said that steps were being taken to prevent flow of sewage into the canal by providing underground drainage connections to households not connected to the system. About 190 connections had already been provided in the Andakondan area by extending the sewage lines and underground drainage connections in other places would be given in a phased manner to prevent sewage flow into the canal.