Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Focus shifts back to encroachments on tanks

K.V. Prasad

High Court order, a shot in the arm for Siruthuli

COIMBATORE: The recent order of the Madras High Court to remove encroachments on water resources has come as a shot in the arm for Siruthuli, a public initiative in Coimbatore to revive the resources and recharge groundwater.

"If the order is implemented, it will speed up our work of desilting tanks completely," said Siruthuli's Managing Trustee Vanitha Mohan.

"We need the Government's help in the form of eviction. Encroachments slowed down our work," Ms. Mohan said.

For the last one year since its launch, Siruthuli grappled with issue of encroachments, mostly hutments, that had mushroomed on tanks or waterways.

It was forced to leave out the areas encroached and could desilt only the `unoccupied' areas of the tanks.

Huts are a known impediment to revival of water resources. But they remain mainly owing to their potential to create social and political issues out of any effort to remove them. Now, the court order has revived hopes of reclaiming space lost to encroachments.

Problems in relocating families settled on tank beds or their refusal to move out and opposition from certain political quarters to forcible eviction had left this issue unresolved for years.

Until the court order, Government agencies in charge of the tanks could go only to the extent of banning cultivation of greens or dumping of garbage on tanks.

Cultivation of greens

In 2003, the district administration even promulgated prohibitory orders to end dumping of waste and debris into water resources across Coimbatore.

Cultivation of greens on tanks was also banned following findings that these contained coliform bacteria, due to discharge of sewage into the water bodies. While these drives were sustained, nothing could be done to remove encroachments.

Desilting

Even as it took up desilting, Siruthuli made it clear that no work would be carried out in the encroached areas.

Siruthuli desilted seven of the nine tanks it targeted. Large-scale encroachments in Valankulam Tank allowed it to remove only garbage and debris.

The tank now has nearly 1000 huts. So does Muthanankulam. When the Kurichi Tank was taken up for desilting some months ago, 650 huts were found encroaching the canal that brought water to it.

Environmental activists point out that a bus stand, a bus depot and a power sub-station have also encroached a substantial portion of Valankulam Tank.

Measures

When Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly K. Kalimuthu was in city on July 19 to felicitate Siruthuli, its Chairman S.V. Balasubramaniam referred to the court order and called for measures to remove encroachments. He said Siruthuli planned to have a bird park at Valankulam.

"If encroachments are removed from this tank, we can have low-cost sewage treatment as waste water from many areas is let into it," Ms. Mohan said.

On July 20, the district administration demolished walls and pulled down fences that encroached a canal at Sivaram Nagar in Ramanathapuram.

This signalled the beginning of a drive by the district administration to re-claim lost areas of water bodies. Official sources confirmed that orders for the drive had been received from the State Government.

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