The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Breach in Keelkattalai Lake plugged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 29, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Breach in Keelkattalai Lake plugged

Staff Reporter

Lack of monitoring decried

Safeguarding the lake: The water spread of Keelkattalai lake, whose bund was broken a few days ago by vandals. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: Officials from the Public Works Department have plugged the breach at Keelkattalai Lake, whose retaining wall was broken open by vandals a few days ago. The PWD workers used sandbags to plug the breach as a temporary measure.

A Metrowater official said that the lake was not among those water bodies handed over to it by the PWD. Only those water bodies in the city limits were taken up for maintenance. A PWD official who confirmed this said that action was being taken to safeguard the lake from further breaching.

V. Santhanam, president of the Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavaram, wanted the authorities concerned to reconstruct the damaged bund.

Local residents speculated that the breach was the work of vandals, and some telltale marks such as the construction of a dirt track in the lake area showed that a temporary road was being built to further the cause of illegal encroachers. Local body officials and water conservation enthusiasts in several suburban areas of Chennai have been complaining for years that lack of regular monitoring by the civic agencies and the PWD had led to these water bodies turning victim to encroachers. On many occasions, the encroachers used political clout to build hutments.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section