Citizens have turned water bodies into dumpyards

Chennai

Blame must go where it is due first, and in my view, it’s first Chennai’s citizens who are to blame for the calamity that had us all neck-deep in water last week. Chennai’s inhabitants have been turning the Cooum and Adyar rivers into dumping grounds for years together – and the Public Works Department, the custodian of the waterways, is helpless before such prolonged and brazen defilement.

We bathe religiously and clean our houses with care, but have no accountability when it comes to responsible garbage disposal and keeping our water bodies clean and encroachment-free. The garbage from our homes – about 4500 million tonnes a day -- does not reach its proper destination. We dump it in the nearby storm water drains or in rivers and canals within the city of Chennai instead of using the Corporation’s dustbins, thus obstructing the natural course of the rain water trying to flow through these channels. Polythene bags, mattresses and used napkins formed part of that incriminatory sludge that put us all through such a horrific experience. Consequently, the water bodies struck back. Bearing the burden already of the dumped garbage, now came the unforeseen double volume of water, and they reacted, flowing back onto roads and houses of people who had had scant regard for their conspicuous presence within the city. Indeed, the water bodies have cleaned themselves. And the lesson that we have to learn from this disaster is to keep our rivers and canals clean, at least henceforth.
 
Next, it’s the encroachers and greedy realtors who have to take the rap. Urbanisation is necessary, but the expansion of the city should be outwards, not inwards. We don’t want to convert lakes and ponds into real estate. The middle class gives in to the attractions offered by builders while the lower strata of people occupy river banks by putting up huts, which will later become concrete houses as the income groups evolve socially and economically.

The Tamil Nadu government is seriously implementing slum clearance activities, but the person who gets a house from the Slum Clearance Board will either rent out his hut, located near the river, or sell it to another. These encroachments will never have pattas (title ownership), but they are properly registered by the Registration Department when ownership is changing hands. Encroachers are happy if even one government recognition comes through. The others -- electrical and water supply connections, property tax collection and other civic amenities – usually follow suit. The apathy is collective, endemic.

So what is the need of the hour? Here are some vows we need to take:
1. Avoid use of plastic bags.
2. If used, let them be disposed off correctly – in dustbins and not in a river.
3. Let the water bodies be and not treat them as dumping grounds or areas to be encroached upon.
4. Let’s help restore our water courses.