Annai Indira Nagar Residents Welfare Association in Velachery has requested the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and Public Works Department (PWD) to clear the water hyacinths and grass that the Velachery lake are now overrun with.
“The Corporation did carry out a cleaning exercise in the lake in August with an aquatic weed-cutting boat that helps cut underwater weeds. However, the hyacinths have cropped up again and spread all over the lake. They have not not spared the drains either — through these drains, excess water flows from the lake into the Pallikaranai Marsh and the Buckingham canal. If this North-East monsoon is going to witness rains, the localities around the lake will be under sheets of water. So, representing the association, I have sent a telephonic message to the Corporation officials, PWD officials and our elected representatives asking them to attend to this. Besides, the Corporation should take measures to arrest discharge of sewage into the lake. That alone will provide a lasting solution in checking the growth of the water hyacinths. In addition to contaminating the lake, sewage nourishes the water hyacinths,” says S. Kumararaja, an office-bearer of the Association.
The Association also pointed out that the stormwater drain on Link Road which runs along Taramani MRTS station to Perungudi MRTS is yet to be desilted.
