CHENNAI: After feigning ignorance when the matter was brought to their notice, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Metrowater admitted before the southern bench of National Green Tribunal here on Wednesday that raw sewage was being discharged into Buckingham Canal.
On August 24, when Express reported about a giant pipeline running alongside the canal bed discharging untreated sewer near Palavakkam, both the pollution control board and Metrowater officials expressed ignorance.
However, on Wednesday, Indira Gandhi, district environment engineer, Maraimalai Nagar and V Ponnambalavanan, chief engineer, Metro water have admitted that the pipeline belonged to Metrowater.
“It’s a fault line meant to open when there is a clog in the pipeline that carries entire sewer of South Chennai to Perungudi treatment plant. It will be kept open for one or two hours and then plugged,” the chief engineer said.
The claim was disputed by the petitioner Jawaharlal Shanmugam, who alleged that the pipeline was continuously flushing untreated sewage into the canal. The local residents of Palavakkam, along side the canal, told Express that sewage flows 24/7 and has been main irritant for past few years now.
It is said that Metrowater and TNPCB officials have visited the place on Tuesday and plugged the line. Indira Gandhi also admitted before the tribunal that several illegal sewer connections were given into the storm water drains by households.
The Bench comprising Justice P Jyothimani and expert member P S Rao ordered a joint inspection of 10 km stretch from Tiruvanmiyur to Sholinganalur by officials of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, TNPCB, Metrowater, Public Works Department and tahsildars to identify the outfalls, encroachments on waterbody/marshlands and other bottlenecks and submit a report to Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust, which will be commencing the restoration works.
S Viswanathan, environment specialist, CRRT, said Hyderabad-based technical consultant NSS Associates has been entrusted with the job of preparing a project report for restoring the canal. The interim report will be submitted by January, 2018.