CHENNAI: Even though it has been a while since rains stopped, there seems to no end to the woes of Pallikaranai residents. This is due to overflowing water gushing down from the broken outlet point of Anai Eri, resulting in water entering the streets.
Spread across 50 acres, the lake was recently restored by the Corporation at a cost of Rs 11 crore. TNIE visited the spot on Friday and found freshwater going down the drain due to a lack of a permanent water retaining structure, causing inundation.
While residents had placed sandbags to temporarily stop overflow, this was not enough. Srikanth Narasimhan, a local resident, urged the authorities to raise the height of the outlet structure so that it prevents overflowing. “There must be a direct stormwater drain from the lake’s outlet so that the water does not flow into residential areas,” he said.
Water from Anai Eri reaches Narayanapuram lake and from there it reaches Pallikaranai marshland before draining into Buchkingam canal. People residing near the lake said that the streets have stormwater drains, which can easily carry rainwater but do not have the capacity to carry the overflowing lake water and this leads to inundation.
Recently, residents of Chettinad Enclave, one of the housing colonies located next to the lake, wrote to the Corporation officials to take action immediately. Express also found out that farmlands were affected due to the water entering the area. As a result, standing crops got damaged.
A woman, who has leased a farmland near the lake claims to have suffered a loss of Rs 20,000 this month because of the inundation. “I am planning to let go of this land and move,” she said. A Corporation official from the zone said they would strengthen the structure temporarily before coming up with a permanent solution. “We will immediately block the outlet with more sandbags to prevent inundation,” the official said.