Members of the civil society, nature enthusiasts and many others joined hands on Sunday morning to clean the channel that takes water from River Noyyal to Vellalore tank.
The volunteers who also engaged an earthmover confined their cleaning mostly to the sluice gate near the Athupalam electric crematorium as the area was choked with waste, mainly plastic and sludge, said R. Manikandan of Kurichi Kulangal Pathukaapu Amaipu.
The organisation along with a few others had mobilised volunteers through social media and word of mouth. The Coimbatore Corporation complemented their efforts by sending men and vehicles.
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From around 7 a.m., the volunteers cleared waste from near the sluice gate and the machinery reached out to inaccessible parts of River Noyyal.
They would continue cleaning for long as the channel is more than five-km long and is filled with waste.
R. Raveendran of Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore, said that the volunteers cleaning the channel would require the support of the various arms of the State Government - the district administration, Public Works Department and the Coimbatore Corporation to go forward.
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The area near the sluice gate was so full of encroachment that it would be impossible to take the earth mover, volunteers said and pointed out that the Public Works Department had a couple of years ago identified 300-odd houses that needed to be removed to carry out the cleaning operation. If the Corporation and the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board could expedite relocation of the encroached to tenements in other parts of the city, it would hasten the cleaning process.
Officials said that they were on the job trying to capture biometric details of those to be relocated.