CHENNAI: The Public Works Department (PWD) is adopting an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to restore the Nemilichery lake, a former dumpsite of the Pallavaram Municipality. Sources in the PWD said the plastic-ridden soil which has been excavated by the residents would be dumped in old stone quarries in Thiruneermalai.
Express had reported on June 25 how the residents of Pallavaram had excavated layers of plastic and domestic non-biodegradable waste such as old tyres and seat covers when they began cleaning the lake.
A blame game ensued between the PWD and the Pallavaram Municipality over taking the onus of the restoration, which was started by the Federation of Pallavaram Residents Welfare Association.
After Kancheepuram Collector P Ponniah visited the lake on June 26, it was decided that the PWD would take charge of the restoration and move the excavated remains of the former Municipality landfill after getting the permission of the Department of Geology and Mines.
Officials in the mining department have confirmed that the PWD has approached them, seeking permission to move the soil excavated from Nemilichery lake, and that a gazette notification would be issued in a few days.
"The PWD has approached us to move around 30,000 cubic metres from the Nemilichery and Keelkattalai lakes,” said a senior official in the mining department.
Excavation of soil from the Keelkattalai lake was halted after the Municipality was found to have allowed the contractor involved in restoring the lake to use the soil for another project without proper permissions and non-payment of concession charges.
Officials from the mining department acknowledged that the soil from Nemilichery lake was laced with domestic waste unlike the Keelkattalai lake soil. However, they claimed that it would still be considered as soil and not garbage. “Once the concession charges are paid, the concessionaire can dump the soil anywhere,” said an official in the mining department.
But the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board said strict action would be taken if the PWD indeed dumps remains of a former landfill in old stone quarries without biomining it.
“Biomining of old landfills is the norm,” said a senior official in the TNPCB’s Kancheepuram office, explaining how the PWD should have not let the Municipality use the lake as a landfill in the first place.
The PWD, which is planning on merely burying the remains of the former landfill elsewhere, had issued a notice to the Pallavaram Municipality on June 20 regarding the dumping of waste into the lake and sewage intrusion.