Desilt river mouths to encourage breeding of fish: Fishermen to PWD

According to fishermen, as Public Works Department (Water Resource Department) has failed to remove silts deposited in the river mouths, the flow between river water and sea has been affected. 

River-mouths like Adyar, Cooum, Ennore, Pazhaverkadu and Muttukadu play a major role in bringing river water to the sea and such mouths should be maintained properly by taking up periodical works like widening rivers and removing silts. 

The fishermen also complained of sewage water mingling with sea and hence polluting. K Bharathi, president of South Indian Fishermen Association, said, “There should not be any gap between the river water and sea and this is the right time the officials should undertake desilting works in river-mouths.” 

“When river water mingles with sea, it will pave the way for reducing characteristic of salt and this will lead fish to breeding largely in fresh water near river-mouths. So, we always demand the officials to take up river-mouth improvement works before the rain sets in,” he added.

Similarly, Kabadi Maran, president of Thamizhaga Meenavar Munnetra Kazhagam, said, “This is the breeding season. Even as the government has imposed fish banning, it has miserably failed to inspect the river-mouths to ensure the free flow of water.” 

Further, the pollution control board officials never visited the sea in North Chennai, where industries release their waste into the sea water, said Maran. Commenting on this, S Mani, superintendent of engineer, Palar Basin Circle, PWD, Chennai Region, said that desilting works were being taken up in rivers periodically. 

“Desilting is under way in Cooum river mouth and works at other rivers will begin from July,” the SE said.