CHENNAI: For more than two decades now, the Velachery lake hasn’t been cleaned up. The public works department (PWD) has not desilted it nor cleared the garbage nor removed encroachments. Water hyacinth covers most of the surface of the 55acre lake. Official of Team Green Velachery told TOI that the lake used to be spread across 250 acres before several government agencies including Tamil Nadu Housing Board.
Slum Clearance Board and private builders encroached upon it. The bypass road further destroyed it, he said.
“The monsoon is just a couple of months away, but the PWD and the civic body have not taken any steps to stop sewage inflow into the lake or remove the hyacinth. The civic body officials have orally asked the PWD several times to hand over the lake to them, but there has been no correspondence on it,” a said civic body official.
The lake was once used for irrigation just like the other 45 tanks under the PWD’s control in the city. The department cannot seek funds to beautify water bodies but only to improve the drainage capacity and other purposes which have now become redundant.
“This has become an urban lake. It is not used for irrigation anymore. We have sought Rs 25 crore to improve the lake, but we usually do not get funds. The GCC can take the lake for improvement and hand it back to us again. But these are decisions that are taken at the higher level,” said a PWD official.
Residents of Velachery have written to the GCC and PWD to improve the lake. National Green Tribunal also pulled up the PWD for high content of coliform bacteria and high TDS of the lake water due to sewage inflow. The PWD told the tribunal that Metrowater has taken steps to identify sewage inflow points and plug them and ensure that only treated water enters the lake. The lake usually gets water from the neighbouring areas through the stormwater drains and major portion of the inflow is from the Raj Bhavan and IIT-M campus. This water then flows into the surplus channel and enters the Pallikaranai marshland.
“We have also sought enumeration of the more than 1,100 encroachments and will remove them soon. Only after that can the lake restoration be taken up,” said an official.