The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Care for waterbodies has dried up”

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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Care for waterbodies has dried up”

K. Manikandan

Activists seek frequent meeting of government agencies and nature lovers

Photo: K. Manikandan

price of neglect: The Nanmangalam lake near Tambaram is one of the waterbodies in peril owing to encroachments and dumping of construction material. —

TAMBARAM: The silence of the State government agencies on carrying out improvement works on the several dozen waterbodies in Tambaram taluk has been annoying activists in the southern suburbs of Chennai.

Lakes, tanks and ponds constitute over 300 waterbodies in this taluk and a majority of them are languishing in sheer neglect.

The waterbodies come under the maintenance of various government departments, depending on their expanse and location.

Except for a few tanks that have been taken up for improvement works in some of the rural and urban local bodies, a majority are decaying while some others are on the brink of extinction owing to problems caused by urbanisation and massive development, activists said.

A case in point is that of the sprawling Nanmangalam Lake near Tambaram on an expanse of nearly 200 acres. Following complaints, dumping of garbage on the lake’s fringes was put an end to. But discreet dumping of sewage by private agencies continues to harm the fragile environment.

On Sunday, a group of part-time fishermen were seen angling for ‘jilebi’ variety of fishes. They said water quality in the lake was not as it used to be a couple of decades ago.

“It has become a lot murkier in certain spots,” said Periasamy, a resident of Nanmangalam, who makes it a point to spend a couple of hours every Sunday at the waterbody.

Activists pointed out to the dense vegetation that literally hides the water surface beneath it for most parts of the lake. Dense outgrowth of vegetation in the water-spread area was not good, they said.

Not just the Nanmangalam Lake, many others share similar problems.

In some pockets, for instance, in Pallavaram and West Tambaram, waterbodies have shrunk owing to encroachments and dumping of construction material.

They have turned into reservoirs of contaminated sludge following discharge of effluents from hazardous industries and commercial establishments.

V.E.Subramani, general secretary of Neer Exnora, said government agencies such as Public Works Department and Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply ought to do much more than charting out proposed schemes and do nothing later.

Residents of Sarvamangala Nagar of Chitlapakkam town panchayat, at a recent meeting of their association, said they would continue to make efforts to improve the Sembakkam and Chitlapakkam Lakes. In April 2005, the Estimates Committee of the Tamil Nadu Assembly had recommended that PWD carry out improvement works on the Sembakkam Lake under a scheme of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

“There has been no progress and we want to know what happened and why” asked P. Viswanathan, convener of the Chitlapakkam Residents Associations’ Coordination Committee.

“In fact, the contribution of voluntary agencies to the highlighting of the condition of waterbodies and also to improving some of them has been more than that of the State government agencies,” Mr.Subramani remarked.

The importance given to massive infrastructure projects is not given to protection of waterbodies, he said.

Even in 2003, the Kancheepuram district administration used to convene meetings to make an audit of the condition of lakes in the entire district.

With inputs from different departments, most importantly PWD and Revenue and feedback and suggestions from voluntary organisations, the district administration used to be informed of the problems and challenges faced by waterbodies, Mr. Subramani recalled.

Calling for reviving such meetings, the Neer Exnora general secretary said it would be the first step towards protecting these precious natural resources that played a crucial role in recharging groundwater levels.

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