With nearly a major portion of rehabilitation and modernisation of the city stretch of the Uyyakondan canal having been completed, the Public Works Department has put up a fence over the retaining walls in the Palakkarai area in an attempt to prevent dumping of solid wastes into the canal by residents and commercial establishments.
The rehabilitation project was sanctioned by the State government a few years back with the objective to clean the highly-polluted urban stretch of the canal that runs across the city. The PWD took up the project at an estimate of Rs.11.50 crore last year.
The canal, branching off from the Cauvery, runs for a distance of 71 km from Pettavaithalai to Vazhavanthankottai. It has an ayacut of 32,000 acres and feeds several irrigation tanks en route.
In the first phase, bunds along the canal from Puthur Weir to Anna Nagar were cleared and a walking track was laid along the new Link Road. Silt was removed on a six-km stretch from the Puthur Weir. The rehabilitation and modernisation of the canal, however, mainly focuses on the densely populated Palakkarai area where discharge of household sewage and garbage dumping is rampant.
Open drains and sewage from houses were let into the canal on a seven-km stretch in the city, especially between Chettipalam and Ariyamangalam. The project envisages removal of silt and construction of a retaining wall for a stretch of 1,250 metres in the Palakkarai area, where the canal takes the brunt of urban pollution. The retaining walls were being constructed taking into account the full supply level in the canal and to prevent dumping of garbage on the stretch.
Sources in the PWD said that nearly 85 per cent of the project had been completed and a major portion of the retaining walls constructed. The remaining work would be completed once the irrigation season was over.
The erection of the fence atop the retaining walls on both sides of the canal was intended to prevent dumping of waste by residents and shops in the Palakkarai area, PWD sources said. Similar fence would be erected soon at a stretch on the pollution-prone Azhvarthoppu area too, the sources added.
“It still continues”
However, civic activists point out that open drains and sewage from houses were still being let into the canal at many places of the city stretch of the canal.
In a representation to Corporation Commissioner, M.Sekaran, president, and K.C. Neelamegam, secretary, of Thaneer, a voluntary organisation, pointed out that the sewage and open drains were flowing into the canal at Raja Colony, near the Chettipalam and Palakkarai areas. A huge amount of sewage is flowing into the canal and the Corporation and PWD should take steps to stop the pollution within a specific time-frame, they said.
Corporation sources said that efforts were on to provide underground drainage connections to households which are not connected to the network. Steps had been taken to extend the underground sewage mains wherever necessary.
