CHENNAI: While memories of flooded streets have started haunting people in Chennai as incessant rains are expected to come back, inundated streets, floating trash, snakes and disease outbreaks have been the order of the day-to-day affair for residents of Kargil Vetri Nagar in Thiruvottiyur.
With more than four fever cases reported in this area, fear of mystery fever has gripped the residents here.
Despite coming under the Zone 1 of the Greater Chennai Corporation limits, Kargil Nagar, which houses nearly 1,800 families, has been neglected by the authorities with respect to roads, stormwater drains and even proper streetlights.
Since the 2015 December deluge, streets in this locality have been inundated. With no draining mechanism in place, water from the surrounding high-lying areas flow into a vacant piece of land through Kargil Nagar streets.
“The contractors employed for this by the civic body refused to pump out stagnant water from this land belonging to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), As a result, water continuously flows in the reverse direction flooding our streets” said H Paul, a resident of Sepoy Kumaran Street.
Also, floods along the Cooum river flowing adjacent to Kargil Nagar were strewn with garbage everywhere. “With no sanitary worker coming here to clean the streets, waste just floats and we wade through it to reach the main road,” said S Nazer from Sabibullah Street.
It was not just garbage, even carcasses of stray dogs were not cleaned in the area and the stench from this has made the residents’ life increasingly difficult, he added.
When the Corporation was keen on sprucing up Kalaignar Karunanidhi Nagar, a posh locality in the vicinity, residents complain of their streets being left in the lurch for months.
These conditions have led to excessive mosquito menace posing a serious health hazard to the people there, particularly children.
Of late, four children from this area were admitted in the nearby state-run hospitals for viral fever and diarrhoea.
“It has been more than a week; fever hasn’t subsided for my child”, said M Surya, mother of three-year-old girl child. With the recent mystery fever outbreak in the neighbouring Tiruvallur district, Kargil Nagar residents were worried that no preventive measures were reaching them.
These marsh condition has resulted in proliferation of snakes which enter into the residential areas in search of food. “I was shocked to find a six-foot-long snake crawling next to my child sleeping in the mat in the middle of the night” said M Bhavani, another resident.
The only means to dispose of domestic garbage was to carry it manually and hand it to over to garbage collection vehicles which ply only through the main road.
“These vehicles come only only early in the morning (6 to 7 am). It is usually dark by then and we cross the stretch connecting our streets with the main road with fear of getting bitten by snakes every time,” Surya added.
Rejecting claims of water stagnation as there was no rainfall reported in the area recently, a senior Corporation official said that estimate had been prepared to construct eight roads in Kargil Nagar and 40 other developmental activities.