Residents at wits’ end as water enters houses, jams vehicles

“Earlier, there was a fence between Pallikaranai marshland and the residential area. A few months ago, they removed it claiming it is to avoid water stagnation as the rainwater will flow this way to the marshland. But after the heavy showers since Saturday, we found that the water is not flowing back, instead, the water from the wetland is getting reverted to the residential areas. We are unable to step out of the house even to go to the nearby shops,” said Senthil Kumar S, a resident of Sri Sai Baba Nagar at Pallikaranai.

In the evening, the situation is even worse as bugs get inside the houses due to inundation. “There are chances for other reptiles to come into the house. Also, it is scary to go outside because there are electric wires hanging, and we don’t know when it would fall into the water or at someone, which is too risky,” Senthil Kumar added.

As the weather department forecasted heavy rains for the city, the residents have stocked up essential things in advance in case of the water level increases in the coming days. They also complain that none of the local body officials visited the spot, and no steps were taken to drain the water from the locality.

Similarly, even residents at Ram Nagar in Madipakkam are worried that the situation they faced in 2015 would return this year.

“After the floods in 2015, it took about six months for the situation to be back to normal. We are yet to witness any heavy rains which we received during the Chennai floods. But after two days’ rains, our area is inundated and water has entered almost all the houses. We are unable to take our vehicles out with water entering the engines. All these could have been avoided if proper steps were taken by the government before the monsoon,” said Lakshmi Priya K, a resident of Ram Nagar for more than 10 years.