Residents complain of garbage dumped into Retteri lakebed

Retteri is one of the 13 lakes identified by the Metro Water to tap drinking water for the city to tide over the severe shortage. Every day, the water utility is pumping out 10 million litres from the lake. 

In 2015, the Water Resources Department had taken up the rejuvenation of the Retteri lake, which is spread over 400 acres along the Chennai-Kolkata National Highway. As part of the project, the Retteri lake was de-silted, deepened and cleaned by removing the excessive growth of water hyacinth. The lake bund was strengthened, and a walker path was laid on it. 

Four years after the rejuvenation works, however, the lake presents a picture of neglect.

“Even as the Metro Water is taking out water, the lake is maintained in a really bad condition. Right at the entrance of the lake on Perambur-Red Hills Road, the garbage is being continued to be dumped on the lakebed. This is barely few meters away from where the Metro Water has set up its motor pump to draw water,” said R Srinivasan, a resident of Secretariat Colony at Lakshmipuram.

The sanitary workers of the Greater Chennai Corporation are using the lakebed to park their tricycle, but they have not taken any step to clear the garbage dumped there. 

K Saroja who works at a private hospital at Lakshmipuram complained that the shops and the residences located close to the lake are continuing to let sewage into the lake. “As the Metro Water is supplying the lake water to the public for consumption, it should at least take steps to prevent letting of sewage into it first. In the absence of a public toilet at junction of 100 Feet Road and nearby market, the people also use the lake bund to relieve themselves,” she said.

A senior Corporation official said that he would ask the Solid Waste Management department to immediately remove the garbage dumped on the Retteri lakebed and to park the tricycles elsewhere.