CHENNAI: A street that has long been reeking of sewage has now become a beautiful play area, thanks to the artistic sensibility of the residents. In the street near the H Block in the Kotturpuram housing tenements, the unbearable stench emanating from a swamp of sewage leaking from broken pipes had been irking residents for long.
Last week, they decided to act on the matter. Residents of all 48 houses in the street pitched in Rs 50 each. They decided to paint all the walls, manholes, and clean the street completely. Interestingly, about 70 per cent of the wall paintings were done by a bunch of school children.
Now, the street walls are filled with cartoons of Dora, Minions, and cute little animals. R Gavaskar, a resident who was part of this drive, said they roped in children to sensitise them to the issue of clean public spaces. "People used to throw garbage here carelessly. Once children started painting, people started peeping out of their windows. They were delighted and joined hands too," he said.
A hired local artist, for his part, painted the manholes in blue and green, and a blast of chromatic colours were splashed on them using sponges. Kutty, another resident, said, "The streets has now turned spick and span, and tube lights too have been set. Residents from other blocks are calling us to renovate their ugly streets like this."
While the residents have done their part, the Corporation workers too helped in repairing the broken pipes and disposing of the sewage. Speaking to Express, Alby John Varghese, Deputy Commissioner (South Region), Chennai Corporation, said public spaces can only be maintained if it is taken care of by a community.
“This is a very good initiative and it can be taken up on a larger scale across the city,’’ he said. The Deputy Commissioner on Monday also shared a picture of the street on his social media handle, tweeting, "Placemaking in its true sense."