The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Lack of sanitation makes southern suburbs down-at-heel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Lack of sanitation makes southern suburbs down-at-heel

K. Manikandan

Streets flooded with sewage and contaminated drinking water pipelines…all make up a stinking scenario

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

TYPICAL EYESORE: Sanitation does not seem to be high on the list of priorities of local bodies in the southern suburbs of Chennai, as evidenced by this scene of women collecting drinking water from a public tap surrounded by sewage at Vel Nagar in Peerkankaranai town panchayat near Tambaram.

TAMBARAM: M. Rani has been a resident of Velu Nagar in Peerkankaranai town panchayat near Tambaram for several years now. The only source of drinking water to Ms.Rani and her neighbours, including J. Kavitha, E. Lakshmi, Anitha, Sundari and Pushpa, is a public fountain in the street corner.

And in the recent past, they were fetching water from the tap after wading through ankle-deep stagnant sewage. While the younger women manage to walk on top of the stormwater drains on road margins, the elders, with plastic pots filled with water have little option but to make their way across the stretch of sewage.

The problem is not restricted to Peerkankaranai; it afflicts many other residential pockets around Tambaram too. Overflowing sewers, streets flooded with sewage and contaminated drinking water pipelines are yet to be a thing of the past in the southern suburbs of Chennai, where sanitation has taken a backseat.

Innovations in tackling sewage and solid waste apart, the sanitary wings of municipalities and staff in town and village panchayats in the southern suburbs just do not have skills and resources to handle the large-scale problems posed by polluted water, a cross-section of residents felt.

Even in some pockets in Alandur Municipality, which has an elaborate underground drainage network, scenes of stagnant sewage in open places are not uncommon. Problems are also faced by residents in Pallavaram and adjoining municipalities. But it is more acute in Tambaram, owing to the phenomenal volume of floating population in this town.

Streets around the bus terminus and the market are an eyesore. Sanitary officers in municipalities, assisted by a couple of inspectors, are entrusted with the job of ensuring hygiene and clean environs, but they continue to follow ageold policies that are no longer relevant, regreted R. Srinivasan, an East Tambaram resident.

He pointed out to efforts made by civic groups in mobilising public opinion on preventing discharge of sewage and contaminated waste water from households in the open. But the same in equal measure was lacking from the government machinery and local body administrators, he said.

As a result, massive volumes of sewage and grey water from households and commercial establishments stagnate on the streets, before finding their way to waterbodies, for instance, the Kadaperi Lake (also called Ranganathapuram Lake) in Tambaram. The United Nations has declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation with manifold objectives, but a close look would reveal realities at the ground level far away from objectives spelt out, said members of Neer Exnora.

Madipakkam, among the most densely populated southern suburb, was a locality where residents suffered owing to insanitary conditions more than elsewhere. Discharge of raw sewage stagnates on the Madipakkam-Velachery Main Road before draining into waterbodies nearby.

Village panchayats along Rajiv Gandhi Salai and East Coast Road, pockets witnessing boom in overall development and construction activity, are bearing the brunt. Sewage transported from places several km away meander through slum pockets in Perungudi, Thoraipakkam and Sholinganallur — areas that are sandwiched between these two arterial roads posing health hazards to residents, said members of the Federation of Residents Welfare Associations of Perungudi.

Revising the manpower ratio based on current needs and adopting modern methods alone could give a thrust to improving sanitary conditions in the southern suburbs, activists said.

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

Tamil Nadu