CHENNAI: Children catch fish in Eshwari Nagar street every monsoon. This street in the southern suburb of Chennai, Selaiyur, is under water every monsoon. Fishing keeps the young children distracted but the older ones are worried after every thundershower.
“Water always enters our homes and we are used to it. Water up to our ankle is fine but anything above that is irritating,” said V Karthik, one of the older kids overseeing the fishing operations.
The overflowing water from the Selaiyur lake, which is one km away, across the Velacherry main road ensures plenty of fish, a petty recompense for the flooding.
“We lost everything to the 2015 floods and had to vacate our houses. It was that bad,” said Lakshmi, a mother of two toddlers.
Eshwari Nagar street is where the canal carrying excess water from the Selaiyur lake ends and empties into a few acres of land before flooding Chitlapakkam. The water is brought to Eshwari Nagar through two drains, which are unable to manage the sheer volume. This floods the whole street slowly. Even when the rains stop, the influx of water doesn’t.
The water from the street is diverted to a few acres of empty land from where it is expected to find the Sembakkam lake. However, more than half of Chitlapakkam and Mahalakshmi Nagar (residential areas) lies in between the water and its destination.
The Tambaram Municipality very conveniently has ended their water drainage system in three acres of land, which is controlled by the Hindu Religious Charitable Endowments department. The land is like a mini-pond that has no bunds.
While it is only Eshwari street which is primarily affected by the Selaiyur lake water in Tambaram, most of Chitlapakkam town panchayat’s residences are breached by the water because of the irresponsible drainage of the Selaiyur lake water by the Tambaram municipality at its border.
“Earlier there weren’t many houses in Chitlapakkam and the water used to reach the Sembakkam lake. But now many approved houses have come up and so we are also helpless,” said an official of the Tambaram municipality.
The Hindu Religious Charitable Endowments Department was not available for comment.