Choolai residents want unauthorised sewer lines to be plugged

Residents in Choolai want the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) to do an audit of the sewer connections in the area and plug the unauthroised ones.

Many sewer connections, they say, are connected to the stormwater drain network

For instance, the SWD network on Swami Street, R. T. Mudali Street, V. K. Pillai Street, Venkatachalam Street, Aarni Muthu Street, Maddox Street, Nellai Salladai Street and Kandappa Street are polluted with sewage.

Last year, steps were taken to reconstruct the stormwater drain network on these stretches after several representations were made to the Greater Chennai Corporation. Earlier, the width of the drain network was two feet. Now, it is four feet. But sewage flows in the newly-constructed stormwater drains.

Shiva Gunasekaran, an activist and a long-time resident of Choolai, says, “Residents dispose medical and sanitary waste into the sewer lines. The pipes were laid more than 40 years ago and many are broken now. No steps have been taken to have the pipes replaced.”

He points out that the problem hits the nadir when it rains as sewage stagnates on these stretches.

“After we complain to the authorities, steps are taken to remove the blocks, but in a few hours, the same situation resurfaces,” says another resident.

Residents allege that similarly, on Bakers’ Street, a good number of sewer lines are connected to the stormwater drain network. On Venkatachalam Street, sewer connections are all connected to the drain network. The sewage from these stretches is drained into the CMWSSB pumping station located on K.M. Garden Street, Purasawakkam through Choolai High Road and V. V. Kovil Street. For an area of R.T. Mudali Street, the pumping station is on Sydenhams Road. The distance from these stretches to the pumping station located on Sydenhams Road is only a kilometre. The pipes connecting the station located on Sydenhams Road has been changed.

The pumping station has the capacity to treat 5 MLD, but it is discharged at the pumping station, located on K. M. Garden Street.