Health scare: Purasawalkam residents live amid sewage, carcasses of animals

CHENNAI: Hundreds of families at K M Garden in Purasawalkam are fearing a possible health disaster as their houses are inundated by flood water containing carcasses of animals and sewage.Water has not receded since Sunday, and tense locals say they will surely fall sick soon. Major roads in Purasawalkam and Egmore have turned into channels carrying rainwater mixed with sewage. K M Garden qualifies as one of the worst affected areas in the city. The area looks like an open trash canal, with carcasses of dead animals floating over. The locality has 15 streets. Residents there have been complaining to the corporation of serious health issues, if the situation continues. Some residents are livid over poor response from authorities. Ayyannar, a resident of K M Garden, charged that neither the elected representatives nor officials have come to meet them. "The water has not receded for the past four days," he said. Another resident, who lifted the carcass of a goat using a stick, complained that dead poultry and rats are floating on inundated streets. "Rainwater normally recedes in a day or two, but this time, that is not the case. There is garbage and stench and this will surely cause diseases," he said.Several streets and roads in Purasawalkam and Egmore have rain water mixed with sewage running over them, causing inconvenience for motorists and residents. Many parts of Millers Road and Montieth Road look like waste water canals with branches of trees placed across them to caution riders of a possible pothole. When contacted, official sources with the state government said that the stormwater and sewage drains were overflowing beyond their capacity due to heavy rain. M Pradeep Kumar, joint managing director of TWAD Board, who is the monitoring officer for Greater Chennai Corporation Zone VI, said sucker machines are being used by metro water to drain out stagnated water. "We are taking all necessary steps to ensure stagnated water is drained out and to address complaints of sewage flowing on roads," he said.