Officials yet to act on sewage overflow at Washermanpet

“When it rains, sewage mixes with rainwater and stagnates on the road. It has been a week and situation remains the same,” said Purushothaman J, a resident of Thiruvallur Nagar in Old Washermanpet. He added that the problem has been regular in the area. Last month, when water stagnated, the metro water officials cleaned the drain two weeks after the complaint, he said.

Recently, residents of Kamarajar Street staged a road roko as the sewage overflowed for more than two weeks, despite giving frequent complaints. Though the officials failed to act, the space was cleared within an hour after the protest.

“If we want to step outside, we have to walk on the sewage and due to this, customers are not coming to our shop. Whenever there is rainfall, we face this problem and immediate action is not taken by the officials even after giving complaining constantly. Only after staging a road roko, they came and cleared the sewage,” said Rajan R, works at mechanic shop at Kamarajar Street. In certain areas, the sewage occupies half of the main road and public find it difficult to walk. Even the pavements are broken in a few areas.

Speaking to DT Next, a senior official of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board said, “We are cleaning the areas where sewage overflows in north Chennai every day. We ensure the steps are taken soon.”