Global Environment Facility to fund Kadapakkam lake restoration

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation will receive a sum of $ 6.88 million from Global Environment Facility (GEF) to carry out ecosystem restoration of Kadapakkam Lake near Manali. Apart from the restoration of the lake, the civic body will use the funding to strengthen its flood management capacity.

A Chennai Corporation document said that the State government has received a financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the form of a loan of $ 251 million towards the cost of integrated urban flood management for Chennai-Kosasthalaiyar Basin project. "The project will support flood management works in the Kosasthalaiyar basin that will help reduce the vulnerability to the impact of climate change, " the document said.

It added an additional financing in the form of a grant for $ 6.88 million (around Rs. 57 crore) was approved by the Global Environment Facility that will help the civic body to enhance flood retention in the Kadapakkam lake through ecosystem restoration. The project will demonstrate natural based solutions for climate change adaptation, through rejuvenation of water bodies, promoting integrated flood risk management to strengthen climate and disaster resilience, and mitigate environmental degradation, the document said.

Meanwhile, the civic body has floated an expression of interest (EOI) to appoint consultants to provide technical and management support in implementing the project.

A environmental impact assessment report prepared by the civic body said that there is no natural habitat of forest, grassland of significant size within the restoration area that supports a high diversity of terrestrial wildlife, which will be disturbed during restoration. "There is no rare, protected or endangered wildlife species in the project area based on literature and survey except the Near Threatened (NT) species Spot-Billed Pelican, and this species will be benefited after the completion of restoration, ” the report said.

Presently, the lake is spread over 134.8 acre, which is 14.2 acres less than the original area of the lake. The lake is entirely surrounded by agricultural land.