The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Pollution going unchecked in Chitheri lake

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 15, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Pollution going unchecked in Chitheri lake

Staff Reporter

Eight villages depend on this water body for irrigation and domestic use

A slow death: Cloth dyeing units polluting the Chiteri lake in Pusivakam near Kancheepuram . — Photo: A.Muralidhran

KANCHEEPURAM: Contamination of the Chitheri lake as well as ground water around it by untreated effluent emanating from cloth dyeing units on a patta land on the western side, continues to haunt the residents of villages situated on the eastern side of the lake.

People of Poosiwalkam, Sengalvaroyapuram, Pudupettai, Vanniyapettai, Kithiripettai, Neikuppam and Bhavasahibpettai depend on the lake for irrigation as well as for domestic use though their drinking water need was met with supply from Palar.

Unsuitable for cultivation

Apart from rendering the lake water "unsuitable" for cultivation, mixing of effluent affects breeding of fish and as well as the cattle which depend on the lake for their needs. The impact was so much that even the wild grass and Neyveli kattamankku weeds on the lake bund and bed were affected by pests.

Ryots in the affected villages stopped cultivation a decade ago in view of the "unchecked" pollution. "Even when we took up cultivation using well water in the area, the yield was not good", they said.

Pond of effluents

In the absence of water inflow, during monsoon, due to silting and "man-made" obstruction in Nathapettai canal, which carry rainwater into this waterbody from Kancheepuram, the lake has virtually turned into a pond of effluents, they claimed.

The dyeing unit-owners in Iyyanpettai and Muthiyalpettai, located on the western side of the lake, "set up" a Rs.2-crore effluent treatment plant. The plant was inaugurated in 1999. However, within a few months it became defunct and untreated effluent was let into a pond created on a five-acre plot bought by the dyeing unit-owners association abutting the lake.

Affected villagers alleged that the dyeing unit-owners used to break the bund and let the effluent into the lake whenever the pond overflowed, except during monsoon since nature would take care of the seepage into the lake and overflowing from the pond.

Repeated petitions and complaints to the authorities concerned have not evoked any response, they lamented.

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