Residents of various areas along East Coast Road plan to go on agitation this Sunday seeking water supply and sewer connections, which have been delayed for many years now.
More residents’ welfare associations in areas like Uthandi plan to join the agitation to be organised by the Confederation of Sholinganallur Constituency Welfare Associations. Residents noted that the areas merged with the Greater Chennai Corporation were awaiting projects to cover the areas with comprehensive water supply and underground drainage network.
A minimum of 12 localities, including Neelankarai, Thoraipakkam, Perungudi, Pallikaranai and Semmenchery, are still waiting for the piped water supply and sewer connections. Though several representations were made, the wait continued for completion of the projects.
Residents plan to go on a hunger strike at the junction of Thoraipakkam-Pallavaram Radial Road and Pillaiyar Koil Street. Srilakshmi Mohan Rao, executive committee member of the confederation, said pipelines had been laid for the water supply project in some areas. However, residents were yet to get piped water supply.
“Every family needs to spend about ₹4,000 per month for water needs and sewage disposal. Areas largely depend on groundwater. People have to shell out exorbitant amount for private sewer lorries as Metrowater’s fleet of sewer lorries are limited,” she said.
Residents of Uthandi too said water pipelines had been laid about three years ago in their area. Abirami Balaji, secretary, Society of Liberals Valuing Environment, a residents’ welfare society in Uthandi, said many households were yet to get water through pipelines. Water supply would help reduce groundwater usage and minimise salinity.
Uthandi residents too would join the strike to stress on the need to provide these facilities.
Responding to the residents’ complaints, Chennai Metrowater said execution of water supply schemes along ECR and surrounding areas were in various stages. In some places like Injambakkam and Sholinganallur, the network was ready, and people would have to apply for connections.
Some wards in Injambakkam, Karapakkam and Sholinganallur were given nearly 1,482 connections so far. Similarly, some wards in Kottivakkam, Palavakkam, Perungudi were provided 1,050 connections apart from pockets in Pallikaranai and Jallandianpet. Schemes in places like Uthandi would be completed soon.
Most of the areas along the ECR would get piped water supply by this year-end. Schemes for Neelankarai and Semmencheri were in tender notification stage. Moreover, tenders were being floated for sewerage projects in many areas, officials said.
