Leafing through on old, well-thumbed copy of an old book, More Grasps To Reach (1992) by Gladys Ambat, one realises a pond has been the centrepiece of the YWCA campus, though tucked away and hidden from the public glare. Essentially a look back in time that takes in the history of the organisation since its inception in 1892, Ambat’s book reserved an entire chapter for the Mermaid Pond (as it is called), thereby underlining its significance to the campus and those associated with it.
Ambat writes: “Old Annual Reports mention boat rides in the Pond during Carnival time, and the fun young people had, going out in a flat-bottomed boat.”
One can justifiably hold on to the assumption that “the back-then” mentioned in the old annual records pertain to a time when the pond was deeper and had greater storage capacity.
At present, efforts are under way to take the pond to “the back-then”, not defined by boat rides but a larger storage capacity.
At present, around the pond sit cakes of dark earth, as if a humongous water-titan had emerged from a deep slumber dredging up all the silt while making its thudding way out of the pond.
In truth, machinery have been hard at work since March 11, 2024 carrying out a dredging and de-silting exercise in the pond.
Recently, when The Hindu Downtown caught up with Valsa Benjamin Cherian, convenor of YWCA’s pond restoration committee, by the side of the pond, she disclosed that effort to have the pond restored actually began exactly a year earlier on March 11, 2023, when the pond restoration committee was constituted.
As YWCA has 300-plus members, electoral and associate, getting a buy-in from all of them is bound to take some doing, and it did. Following the go-ahead that came with some seed money, a partner who could pour in more resources had to brought on board. Valsa notes that based on the goodwill generated by its previous associations with YWCA, Rotary Club of Madras entered the picture in September 2023. The Rotarians would provide 80 per cent of the funding and YWCA, the rest.
Valsa Benjamin Cherian, convenor of the pond restoration committee and Vithya Padmini, executive general secretary, YWCA, stand near the pond. | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) would soon be on the scene as the implementation and technical partner. However, the NE Monsoon and Cyclone Michaung put paid to hopes of an early start to the pond restoration programme.
On the salient features of the restoration, Valsa remarks solar panels would be set up on the terrace of THE nearby Margaret’s Place to power the lights around the pond. A small deck area is also planned by the pond. From Valsa’s account, one could sense the bells and whistles would be kept to the barest minimum, and the larger focus would be on shoring up the ecology of the lake, and enhancing its usefulness to the neighbourhood. She points out that EFI is integrating an island of greenery into the pond. Coupled with the greenery around it, that would be an invitation to birds.
By increasing the pond’s storage capacity, she continues, the water table would improve not just for the YWCA campus but the communities around it. With gated communities dotting it, the neighbourhood is densely populated.
A peek into the field notes
The 1.5-acre Mermaid Pond on the YWCA campus on EVR Periyar Salai in Egmore is having a revamp. A project by YWCA and Rotary Club of Madras, it is being implemented by Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI).
The salient features of the restoration, as spelt out by EFI founder Arun Krishnamurthy are: increasing the pond’s storage capacity, getting a solar-panelled aerator, creating a double embankment and encircling the park with a ring of vegetation.
Arun notes the Mermaid Pond naturally supports rich aquatic life. Its location in the middle of busy Egmore, opposite the railway station places the Mermaid Pond straightaway in the league of waterbodies that seek to bring some balance to an overwhelmingly concreted environment. In fact, the pond itself thrives amidst buildings.
Says Arun, “This pond retains water through the year due to a good groundswell and also because the campus by itself is largely earthen. The campus does not have much concrete, and has good green cover. The campus itself is a good sponge. The aquifer can keep supplying water to the pond. Due to all the organic matter that has gone in, the water had become nutrient-rich, which led to algal bloom and in general all the other problems associated with a stagnant waterbody. We dewatered the pond and then started dredging and de-silting it. The beauty of this is organic and rich soil has come out of the dredging and de-silting exercise. It is like gold: anything will grow on this soil. The soil will go into forming the bunds and whatever is left of it can be used elsewhere on the campus to support the vegetation there.”
