Velachery’s water source once, now a dump yard

Talking to DT Next, S Kumara Raja, president of Annai Indira Nagar Residents Welfare Association, said that the broken compound wall and the burgeoning water hyacinth has reduced the tank into a swampy, smelly pit of garbage. “When Velachery was spread across just about 10 streets, this was the biggest source of water for us. But now it is one neglected garbage dump that is crying for attention from the authorities.”

The tank which is spread over an area of 1.2 acre near the Gangiamman Kovil is in urgent need of desilting, deepening and a clear pathway, he pointed out. “It could be restored with a little work, provided there is a will among the stakeholders. The residents are also to be blamed for the sorry state of the tank,” he added.

Kumara Raja added that the growing population and haphazard development have been depleting waterbodies in the locality, including the famous Velachery lake. He added that the maintenance of the lake was transferred from the Public Works Department to the Greater Chennai Corporation some time ago. “We have made several representations, but they don’t seem to care,” he added.

While the Corporation authorities admitted that apathy has robbed the tank off its original glory, they blamed the residents partly for the situation. “Though we have been ensuring that the garbage collection is on time, residents have been looking for spots to dump, negating all efforts taken by us. We also hear of people coming from other areas to dump garbage here,” said an official.

Even while admitting they were yet to finalise a plan on how to proceed with the clean-up and preventing the lake from turning into a cesspool again, the official assured that the civic body would ensure that the tank was restored to its past glory in the near future.