Over the last six months, in response to calls by residents’ groups, the State government, the Water Resource Department and respective local bodies have undertaken a raft of exercises to improve lakes that have been battling years of neglect and abuse. In almost all the cases, the major part of the work has involved ridding these waterbodies of garbage that have quietly accumulated over the years. Towards this end, bio-mining work was commissioned at some of the lakes. There have also been cases of residents kitting themselves out with necessary cleaning gear and walking into the lake beds and clearing them of garbage.
Chitlapakkam lake: Slow progress
At Chitlapakkam, a huge piece of land is piled high with garbage that has been accumulating steadily, day after day, over many years. Of course, the residents don’t enjoy this sight and many of them are also worried about the effects of such toxicity on the land. However, resigning themselves to their lot, some of them make light of the situation, calling these garbage heaps, “the Himalayas of Chitlapakkam”. Finally, a few months ago, their pleas to rid the lake area of garbage found a favourable response, and a bio-mining exercise was started at the lake. Residents however allege that the bio-mining machine pressed into duty is of significantly low capacity and it would be years before it deals with the garbage at the site. Even that is doubtful as fresh garbage keeps piling up in the lake area. The daily collection of garbage from areas coming under the jurisdiction of Chitlapakkam Selection Grade Town Panchayat, weighing around 15 tonnes, is dumped in the Chitlapakkam lake area. “An installation of high- capacity bio-mining machine is the need of the hour,” says P. Viswanathan, convener, Chitlapakkam Residents’ Association Coordination Committee.
Nemilichery Eri: A daunting task
When volunteers of Eri Protection Forum, Chromepet, were making preparations towards cleaning up the Nemilichery Eri, they were optimistic about the outcome of the work ahead of them. Soon, their optimism gave way to despair. Their positive outlook was the result of ignorance. V. Santhanam, president, Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavapuram, said, “We thought clearing the trash from the waterbody would be an easy task. We were mistaken. As the soil was being turned up, there were mind-boggling quantities of plastic waste. Infiltrated by garbage, the soil is heavily polluted.
The soil is greatlyClearing all the waste is proving a daunting task. Though two porcelain machines have been pressed into service, only half of the lake area, overrun with garbage, has been cleaned up. To reclaim the waterbody from garbage, fully, the State government and Water Resources Department (WRD) and come up with a comprehensive lake reclamation programme.”
He pointed out that early this week, WRD officials visited the lake. They have promised to write to the District Collector as well as the Municipality, and ensure necessary measures are taken to save the waterbody, he pointed out.
Radial Road lakes:
The Keelkattalai lake and Pallavaram lake are two of the three lakes found on the Thoraipakkam-Pallavaram 200ft Radial Road. Work on rejuvenation of these lakes, which began earlier this month, is progressing at a steady trot. Being executed a cost of Rs.14.98 crore, the work involves de-silting and deepening the lakes and strengthening of bunds. These works have begun. As part of the exercise, using a form of interception-and-diversion technique, raw sewage flowing into these waterbodies through stormwater drains is being collected in a well and connected to the underground drainage system. This exercise will be followed by work centred around clearing the solid waste in the waterbodies.
Sembakkam lake
The reclamation of the Sembakkam lake is entering a new phase. It involves clearing garbage found below ground level. Through a tendering process, the Sembakkam Municipality is seeking to employ a private waste management agency to carry out this work, which will be an extension of the bio-mining exercise that kicked off in September 2017. With the completion of this work, the lake area that has been bio-mined can be considered rejuvenated, say officials of the Sembakkam Municipality. Earlier, with bio-mining work contracted to Zigma Global Environ Solutions Private Limited through a tendering process, the huge mountain of garbage that was a blight on the lake, was cleared. Different types of waste have been recycled differently. Here are a few examples. Plastic, tyre and leather waste have been converted into Resource Derived Fuel (RDF) and given to cement-making companies. Biodegradable waste was given to the Forest Department for it to compost the waste and use the compost in its nursery. Soil and stones retrieved from the garbage were used to fill up low-lying areas nearby.
Villivakkam lake: An exercise in eco-tourism
At its best, eco-tourism of lakes will serve as bulwark against encroachment and garbage dumping. The Chetpet lake is a sterling example of this. In May, the Villivakkam lake became the focus of an eco-tourism exercise. Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is carrying out this work under the Smart City Project. It is one of the 32 waterbodies within the Corporation limits that have been identified for restoration.
According to information from GCC, a slew of facilities, including an open air theatre, an entrance plaza, a skating ring, an Aavin parlour, a refreshment block, a tunnel, a maze, a kids play outdoor gym, a walkers’ pathway and landscaping, will come up around the lake. A space for Chennai Metrowater to set up a sewage treatment plant has also been earmarked. The total cost of the project is said to be Rs.16 crore.
(With inputs from T.S. Atul Swaminathan and D. Madhavan)
