Citizens offer to help in lake clean-up

Chennai: Residents of localities abutting 19 lakes in the city and nearby have welcomed the government’s proposal to

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the water bodies at a cost of Rs 15 crore and have offered to help in whatever way they can to ensure that the authorities restore them to their original, unspoiled state.

Land sharks have taken over much of the original area these lakes covered. Locals and small industrial units let raw sewage and effluents into most of the lakes, leaving them severely polluted.

The public works department (PWD) will undertake the project. Residents say it must complete the job before the northeast monsoon arrives toward the end of the year.

“It has to be a coordinated effort by various departments if the government wants to make the lakes clean and keep them that way,” Chitlapakkam resident K Ramakrishnan said. “We are willing to work alongside the authorities to restore these water bodies.”

Dumping of garbage has severely affected Sembakkam Lake and Chitlapakkam Lake. PWD officials said they will deepen the lakes, strengthen their bunds and remove invasive ‘seemai karuvelam’ (Prosopis juliflora) plants.

Sarvamangala Nagar Residents Association secretary M Ravi said officials must first survey the lakes.

“We have been losing the Sembakkam and Chitlapakkam lakes to encroachers for decades,” he said. “We need to know the actual extent of the water bodies.”

Activist Sunil Jayaram of ‘Chitlapakkam Rising’ said residents have been fighting to clean up Chitlapakkam Lake and stop encroachments.

“Residents have voluntarily cleaned a portion of the lake. But there is only so much that we can do on our own, without the authorities,” he said.