CHENNAI: Residents of Kamarajar second street at Saligramam have been receiving Metrowater contaminated by sewage for the last four months and have been forced to find alternate sources of water for domestic purposes.
Despite repeated complaints to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, the issue is yet to be resolved. As authorities continue to scratch their heads, unable to find the source of contamination, most residents are forced to shell out money to private water lorries. Even houses with borewells are unable to cope with this seemingly situation where the Metrowater pumps spew a thick, black, smelly fluid.
“Since the borewells are deep, it yields water with a ferrous tinge and it isn’t potable,” said Guhan Subbiah, one of the residents worst hit by the situation.
With only a borewell which yields unusable water as an alternative to Metrowater, his family has been borrowing water from the house opposite ever since the contamination began.
“Our underground sump can hold only 2000 litres and private water lorries deliver 6000 litre loads,” said Guhan’s wife as she narrated how for every bath, they have had to borrow a bucket of water. “Each day, we have to borrow at least 10 buckets,” she said.
Guhan’s mother, Kannagi, fears goodwill will not last long and she has been running pillar to post to ensure the issue is redressed before the burden becomes too much for their neighbour.
K Neelamegan, another senior citizen along the stretch, is forced to make do with the iron-tainted borewell water for domestic purposes and has started buying can water for consumption.
“I still remember the first day the contamination happened. I poured a mug of water on my face and I was covered in sewage water. The smell was overpowering and I could not open my eyes,” he said.
When this Express reporter visited the site on Saturday, he found workers of Metrowater flushing out contaminated water from a hole they had dug near Subbiah’s house.
“This street receives water from KK Nagar pumping station. But, since a vast area is covered, we have not been able to find the contamination point yet,” said Krishna, assistant engineer overseeing the work.
He alleged that most cases of pollution are caused by improper disposal of sewage by residents and the crisscrossing of stormwater drains into Metro water lines.
“The water reaches Kamarajar second street after passing through Vijayaramapuram slum area and it is likely the contamination could have happened there but we are not ruling out other possibilities,” the engineer told Express.
When asked for a time frame for redressal, he was unable to give a definite answer and assured it would be solved in a week’s time.
Lack of proper method to address contamination
Metrowater uses the trial and error method to identify the source of contamination which means workers will have to dig up random sections and flush the water to narrow down the source. The workers flushing out water told Express there was no way to tell how long it would take to find the contamination point. The Assistant engineer also said the trial and error method was what had been in use since he began his career in the organisation over 22 years ago.