For the last few days Aravindan's family lives out of his sister's place, which is pretty close by. The reason the family moved out: inundation brought in by the last few days' rain.
S. Savithri, Aravindan's sister, says the earthen stove there is under water and so is the grocery.
“They have no dry ground to carry on their day-to-day activities.”
His is one of the several houses in Kumarasamy Colony, off Thadagam Road, that the recent rain has affected.
The water from the neighbouring Muthannan Tank has entered the houses. And as it entered, it brought along wet garbage, odour, insects and mosquitoes.
“The residents of inundated houses have no place to cook, sleep or even sit,” she says.
This has been the situation whenever the North East monsoon has been active. “Last year it was worse. Dirty water from the tank flooded the houses around 2 a.m. when we were fast asleep. There was hardly any time to move the things on the floor,” she recalls.
M.S. Velmurugan, a resident and a former Corporation Councillor, says 100 of the over 1,900 houses in the locality are more or less in the same situation.
Whenever the water level in the tank rises, the residents are in for trouble. And this year it has been worse because the Corporation was slow to react to the situation. “Though the civic body has the lake under its control, it did not do what needs to be done to drain out the surplus water: open the shutters to discharge the surplus water into River Noyyal.
The Public Works Department was slightly better off in managing the tank.”
The Corporation took over the maintenance of the Muthannan Tank and seven others from the PWD with the objective of beautifying and improving the condition of the water bodies with funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The civic body did nothing much, though.
The least it could have done was release the shutters to prevent overflow of water but it failed.
Mr. Velmurugan points out that the tank's water is not rain water but sewage – a mixture of effluents from dyeing units and industries in and around the locality.
Inundation is only a part of the problem, though.
There are houses that have been damaged in the recent rains. Sixty-eight-year-old Maniammal lost a portion of her tile-roofed house to the rain. Unable to bear the strength, a clay-plastered wall on the eastern side collapsed.
And it brought down the roof as well.
The residents say they have received no help thus far.
Mr. Velmurugan says that the Corporation has not sprayed insecticides to prevent the multiplication of larvae and mosquito and bleaching powder or lime to control the spread of diseases.
E. Senthil, the new Councillor representing the area, said he had requested the Corporation officials to open the sluices to reduce the water level in the Tank.
He had also reported the damage to the houses to the Revenue Department officials for compensation.
As a temporary solution, he had asked the Corporation to place sand bags to prevent entry to sewage into houses.
