The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Life is oozing out of community tank

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 06, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Life is oozing out of community tank

K. Lakshmi

The waterbody at Kandigai near Korattur turns an encroachers' paradise

SHRINKING: A portion of community tank at Kandigai near Korattur is being filled with heaps of sand. — Photo: S. Thanthoni.

CHENNAI : A community tank at Kandigai near Korattur, which is still of use to local residents, is slowly dying with encroachers taking over the tank bed for the past few years.

Residents said they saw cart and truck loads of sand being dumped into the tank in the early hours of Thursday and alleged that a person residing in a corner of the water body was involved in the illegal activity.

A visit to the area falling under the Ambattur municipality revealed that heaps of sand were dumped on the lake bed in one corner of the tank and a portion of the tank was levelled with mud and fenced off.

The tank still holds about one foot of water. People of neighbouring areas were seen fetching water from the tank for non-potable purposes.

Filling the tank with sand and expanding the encroached space has been a regular feature in the past three months.

Garbage dumping

The residents said that large-scale encroachments and garbage dumping had already shrunk the size of the tank. With the levelling of the tank area, they feared that it would cease to exist in a few years.

A resident of Kandigai Road said that the tank near the Vinayagar Temple, which was called Vallular Kulam by the locals, served as a groundwater recharge to the neighbouring areas and had water even during summer.

Encroachers found it easy to exploit the tank as it was located in interior Korattur and surrounded by houses, he said.

The residents said that several water bodies in the Ambattur municipality were facing similar fate as they were either encroached upon or turned into makeshift dumping yards.

For example, the Thangal lake at Vijayalakshmipuram, which was several times bigger than the tank, was turned into a cesspool.

They said that they had not complained to the municipal authorities as they were threatened by the encroachers who, they alleged, had connections with local politicians.

Municipal officials said that they were unaware of the problem and would take steps, if the alleged encroachers were found guilty.

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