Jal Vayu Vihar, an air force and naval officers’ quarters in Madambakkam panchayat limits has come up with commendable civic initiatives. The best of the lot is a sewage treatment plant that the 92 families at the colony have set up. The individual sewage channels of the houses are connected to the Small Collection Tank inside quarters.
While the muck/sludge is retained by the collection tank, sewage water is sent to an aeration Tank. Once the aeration process is over, it is sent through the pipes into the sand pits.
B. Sankaranarayanan (60), a retired naval officer and a resident, says “The maintenance costs for a year is around Rs.60,000, which is borne by the inmates of the colony. Also, on a monthly basis, a chemical is used to kill the bacteria. The retained muck in the tank is cleaned every six months. We, the inmates of the Vihar, are also planning to use the recycled sewage water for gardening purposes.”
The Vihar has a good garbage disposal record too. At the doorstep of every household, a green bucket is placed to collect the garbage. “The wheeled cart of the local panchayat that comes every day is not ready to accept non-biodegradable garbage such as plastics, but willingly collects biodegradable waste,” says Sankaranarayanan.
And the residents have been collecting the non-biodegradable on their own and disposing of them in an eco-friendly manner. For this, each family spend around Rs.1,200 per month.
The approach roads to the colony are full of potholes, ragged and rough. Even the roads inside the colony have not been relaid since 1997 when they were laid for the first time. The park inside the Vihar has not been not maintained properly and is overrun with thorny bushes. A few residents say that they do not get any help from the panchayat officials.
“For drinking water, we depend mainly on borewells. Unfortunately, the panchayat has not bothered to provide us with drinking water as it does for the people living in the areas up to the limits of our colony.”
