CHENNAI: During the 2015 December floods, South Chennai bore the brunt of nature that left people devastated.
The famous Old Mahaballipuram Road (OMR), deemed as the future capital of India’s Information Technology, came to a virtual standstill for a week, with water flowing knee-deep from Tiruvanmiyur right up to Sholinganallur.
The main reason for the never-before flooding in this stretch of almost 10-15 kms was the poor maintenance of Buckingham Canal.
This year seems to be no different. In fact, the devastation could be far greater, as the Kovalam bar mouth is choked with hundreds of tonnes of silt deposits.
The flood waters from Tambaram and Selaiyur will have to pass through Adambakkam before reaching Velachery. From Velachery, the only way flood waters can flow is through Pallikaranai marsh, before reaching the Okkiyam Maduvu channel across OMR to join Buckingham Canal near Sholinganallur. The junction of the canal from Okkiyam Maduvu to Sholiganallur up to Kovalam is around 100 metres wide, but the width of the mouth where the water drains into the sea has narrowed down from 220 metres to 40 metres.
The mouth has literally turned into a ‘hard’ beach. Visitors to Fishermen’s Cove (Covelong), a property of Taj, and tourists who frequent the place for surfing are putting up tents on the sand bars of the Kovalam mouth.
Locals attribute the crisis to unscientific construction of groynes by the fisheries department. The government has spent Rs 18.30 crore for construction of groynes and one of the objectives is to keep the mouth open round the year, but due to the faulty design, the siltation has worsened.
Nityanand Jayaraman of Coastal Resource Centre told Express that choking of Kovalam mouth means the entire built-up area of South Chennai would face the risk of flooding.
Jawaharlal Shanmugam, an environmentalist, said the Public Works Department (PWD) can simply pump the sand from the mouth to the north of the groynes, which is facing unprecedented sea erosion. “Though during monsoon, the force of river water will take the sand offshore and open the mouth, the quantum of silt that is currently deposited is too much for natural remediation,” he said.
Balaji Narasimhan of IIT Madras, who is also part of NGT-appointed expert committee to investigate the environmental damage caused in Ennore, said he has not seen Kovalam personally for him to comment, but in 2015 the choking of Adyar river was one of main contributing factors for flooding in Chennai.
When contacted, PWD officials told Express that the situation is not as grim as being portrayed. Before the north-east monsoon arrives, there will usually be one or two storms and the natural sand drift movement will change from north to south, which will help remove some of the silt. “We are preparing a pre-monsoon work plan and would commence work soon,” a senior official said.
Warning signs
Experts say groynes constructed by the state fishery department has led to heavy silt formation in the cruicial Kovalam bar mouth
Due to the groynes, in less than a year, about 400 metres of the beach has vanished in Muttukadu, say residents in the area. Since the natural movement of sand has been affected, the Kovalam bar mouth is also on verge of closing.
Many also point to villas constructed by destroying mangroves in the area as one of the sources of crisis.
The Kovalam bar mouth is one of the most important points where Buckingham Canal, carrying storm waters during the monsoons, empties into the sea.
There are fears that closure of Kovalam mouth could lead to severe flooding in south Chennai.