Chennai

Forty-four-year-old Devi D, a homemaker from TP Scheme Road, recalled the harrowing experiences a year ago, when the December deluge caused massive flooding of their homes. “We had to vacate our homes and the cars too were damaged. Later on, we discovered that our street had no storm water drains. In addition, the drains in the surrounding streets too were blocked, which aggravated the situation,” said the former teacher, who is one of the residents involved in the audit. 

Those living on School View Road, Srinivasa Avenue, RK Mutt Road, Raja Street and Kandasamy Street too faced inundation. The residents, with the help of NGO Arappor Iyakkam, came together and made a representation to the Corporation. Their demand was the desilting of the storm water drains in the area.

Resident welfare associations were roped in and teams were formed to monitor the work going on in each of the streets. Ganga Sridhar, a software engineer, said the Regional Deputy Commissioner (South) BM asked the citizens to team up with the Corporation engineers and inspect the storm water drains in the area.

“Some of the drains were desilted while others were not. We inspected each and every drain with the help of a storm water drain map provided by the Corporation. Currently, work is going on full swing on ground. The officials visit the area daily. Whenever there’s work going on in one street, our citizen team in charge will inspect the work and note if it is done in order. The work has been completed in RK Mutt road and drains in other streets too are under progress. Till now, 50% of the work has been done and looking at the pace at which it’s going, all the drains in the area will soon be desilted before the rains,” said Ganga, who is also an office bearer of Raja Street Residents Welfare Association. Ganga added that the residents have been asked to conduct another audit after the completion of the works. 

An official from the Corporation said, “After inspection, we started working on the drains. In the streets that were badly affected last year, works are going on and will soon be completed.” 

Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam said this is an example of the possibilities when citizens team up and approach officials. “While conducting a “know your rights” session, we found the residents really willing to team up and tackle the civic issues. Many of the residents were a part of the welfare association and actively participated. This shows that if residents come together and approach officials, they can truly bring about change,” concluded the activist.

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