CHENNAI: If there’s one thing that this year’s water scarcity has instilled in people, it is awareness to protect water bodies and rejuvenate them. On Sunday, about 50 engineering students from Sairam Engineering College came to cto clean it.
Interestingly, the students were from far off areas such as Anna Nagar and Triplicane. “Distance is never a problem as long as we work towards a common goal. There is a need all to preserve environment and water bodies not just here,’’ said Sai Aswant, a student from Triplicane. Students from Perungalathur, Guindy and Adyar joined too.
To create a mass cleaning awareness, professors of the college decided to conduct such an initiative under ‘Swacch Club’. “This time about 50 students came and we hope to see more students participating in cleaning activities. We will continue till the whole lake is rejuvenated,’’ said K Selvaraju, a professor.
Chitlapakkam was one of the worst affected areas during summer and residents had to pay huge sums to purchase drinking water. To tackle the ongoing crisis, Chitlapakkam Rising team under the banner ‘Save Chitlapakkam Lake’ decided to call in volunteers from all over the city to clean the lake.
“The government will only desilt the lake, but there is a huge quantity of garbage and plastic in the lake bunds. We needed mass cleaning. Seeing our posts on social media and spread of the message by word of mouth, college and school students came in huge numbers to help us,’’ said Sunil Jayaraman of Chitlapakkam Rising, an NGO, which is fighting for the restoration of the waterbody.
“We collect up to 100 bags of waste and send it to a waste recycling factory at Sriperumbudur”, said Jayaraman.