Volunteers cheer as clean-up drives reduce waste in Selaiyur lake

Around 20 volunteers from Cognizant Outreach, Tata Consultancy Services, Eco Society India, residents and members of Makkal Pathai took part in the lake clean-up and restoration drive that entered 39th week on Saturday. According to the volunteers who are enthusiastic about the outcome, their efforts have paid off with 90 per cent of the lake being clean now.

“In the 33rd week, we collected around 85 sacks of plastics waste and 20 sacks of glass bottles from the lake besides removing water hyacinth. Now, we were surprised to see only 7 bags of waste being collected in the lake – thanks to the residents who curtailed dumping garbage in the lake after seeing our efforts every week,” said Darwin Annadurai, founder of Eco Society India.

The volunteers said that the major problem during clean-up is when alcohol bottles lie on the lakebed and people littered the place at odd hours. “Residents urged us to cut trees, as miscreants came there to drink and litter the place. But it is against the principle of restoration,” said Santhosh S, a volunteer.

Gandhimathi K, a resident of Selaiyur, recalled how the lake has been polluted for more than 15 years. “After repeated complaints, the officials cleared the shrubs, but did not clean it. Earlier, we used the lake for domestic use but stopped after it got polluted with sewage and industrial wastes. Now, after these volunteers took the initiative to clean the lake, there is a lot of improvement now.”

When contacted, a senior official from the local body said, “We allowed the volunteers to clean the lake and keep us updated every week. We are also inspecting the lake often to act against those dumping garbage into the lake.”