CHENNAI: Empty plots in low-lying developing areas in the city have become ideal breeding grounds for dengue-spreading mosquitoes due to stagnation of rainwater.
As neither the Greater Chennai Corporation nor owners of these plots take responsibility to pump the water out, residents living in the neighbourhood struggle to get rid of mosquito menace. A majority of these unused spaces found in parts of Velachery, Perungudi, Taramani and Madipakkam have also become mini garbage dumping yards which further increase the presence of mosquitoes, rodents and even snakes, it is pointed out.
One such locality is AGS Colony at Velachery which has about 25-30 empty plots. The local residents’ association has been actively functioning to identify owners of such plots to clear the stagnation. But the residents hit a dead end as they could not contact the owners and in some cases, owners were very reluctant to look into the problem.
“We got the encumbrance certificate for many plots. But only the owners names and measurement details of the land were given. In some cases, even if the owners were living nearby, they did not allow us to remove garbage and clean the space. Glass bottles, tyres and plastics are left in the rainwater,” said Geetha Ganesh, secretary of AGS Colony Residents’ Welfare Association.
AGS Colony, Tansi Nagar, Sri Nagar, Rose Avenue, Baby Nagar, Bhuvaneswari Nagar, Bethel Avenue and eastern side of Velachery have an abundance of such spots, locals said. In addition, extended areas, including Sholinganallur, Keelkattalai, Manali and Tiruvottriyur, where people buy lands for investment, face the same problem.
“We cannot completely blame the corporation as well as they cannot trespass on private land. But they do not have a mechanism to tackle the issue of stagnant rainwater in empty unoccupied plots. Such owners of lands must be heavily fined. Many have fallen sick in parts of Madipakkam due to this,” said V Rama Rao, a local activist from Nanganallur.
Additionally, as roads are not properly milled by Greater Chennai Corporation, their height keeps increasing and stagnant rainwater does not have an outlet to drain. “Ideally, existing layer of tar must be removed and surface milling must be carried out,” said Nashwa Naushad from the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).
But, corporation officials said biological control methods are being deployed to eliminate larvae from multiplying. “A species of fish called Gambusia affinis has been introduced in spaces containing stagnant water especially at Valasaravakkam, Kodambakkam and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar. These will eat mosquitoe larvae. Hence, water need not be pumped out and will percolate to groundwater table and replenish it,” said S Selvakumar, Chief Vector Control Officer of Chennai Corporation.
Lack of road milling a cause of water stagnation
In addition to the empty plots breeding mosquitoes, the height of roads keeps increasing and stagnant rainwater does not have an outlet to drain as roads are not properly milled by Greater Chennai Corporation. “Ideally, existing layer of tar must be removed and surface milling must be carried out. This way, height of the road will remain the same. But, in reality a new layer of tar is added on the existing layer,” said Nashwa Naushad from the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)