CHENNAI: One of Chennai’s major drinking water sources, Red Hills reservoir, continues to be polluted with discharge of raw sewage from neighbouring localities, say locals. The reservoir which is now full, thanks to Krishna water supply, is covered under a thick growth of water hyacinth and other invasive weeds. This vegetation can be seen along Surapet, Arikambedu, Erukkanchery and Thirumullaivoyal. Locals said due to lack of underground sewerage connections here, raw sewage from localities such as West Balaji Nagar, Lenin Nagar, Saraswathi Nagar, Oragadam, Naravarikuppam, Pudhur and Thirumullaivoyal are being let into the reservoir, residents said.
“For the past one week, we have been clearing garbage and plastic waste near Tiruvallur highway side of the reservoir. We plan to plant 300-odd tree saplings here. But, sewage contamination is a longstanding problem which has been polluting the reservoir. Many directly dump sewage collected in septic tanks into the canals leading to the reservoir,” Sameer Ansari, a local activist who spearheaded an initiative that helped in clearing 18 tonnes of garbage from the baby canal, said.
At Thirumullavoiyal, most storm water drains carry sewage into the reservoir. “Lorries use pipes and let sewage into storm water drains. Sometimes, people dump garbage too. We stopped one lorry,” said Arun Kumar, a resident. Chembarambakkam reservoir is affected by the same problem. Express reported in October that as natural inlets of the reservoir had turned into sewage carriers, hyacinth had covered the waterspread area for three km. “The government’s basic duty is to protect the city’s major drinking water reservoirs. They need to first remove illegal buildings encroaching the reservoir’s catchment areas and surplus channels. Because of these encroachments freshwater is unable to flow into the reservoir,” said S Janakarajan, a well known water management expert.