The residents of Chitlapakkam have urged the Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat to de-silt and deepen the Chitlapakkam pond at the earliest. The pond, located at Muthalamman Koil Street, behind Sri Gangai Amman Temple, is dry now.
In a beautification work carried out in the area around the pond in July 2014, at a cost of Rs.14 lakh, a walkers’ path was laid and benches, railings and lamp posts were installed. The decades-old pond stored rainwater through a culvert and an inlet from Anna Street and Nehru Street, Chitlapakkam.
“Steps for de-silting the pond should have been taken up in March. At present, we are going through acute water scarcity and the Palar riverbed has gone dry. We did not receive Palar water for more than two months, though around 90 per cent of the houses in the locality have the Palar water pipes. We are drawing water from bore-wells and buy canned water for drinking,” residents said.
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Failure to de-silt and deepen the pond has led to depletion of groundwater in the nearby localities. If de-silted, the pond can store rainwater, thereby replenishing the groundwater table ,” the residents pointed out. “We are also planning to ask the Chitlapakkam town panchayat to supply drinking water through water tankers till Palar water supply is restored,” the residents added. R. Mohan, president, Chitlapakkam town panchayat, said plans were on to de-silt and deepen the pond. He said a request had been made to the state government to allocate funds and soon, a resolution would be passed in this regard.
“With regard to the drinking water crisis, we are planning to approach the Kancheepuram collectorate to grant us permission to draw water from the wells in Madambakkam. Steps are also being taken to commission a reverse osmosis water purifier plant in bore-wells in Chitlapakkam,” he pointed out.