THOOTHUKUDI: It has been 10 days since corporation areas were flooded. Parts of north and south zones under the Thoothukudi City municipal corporation continue to be submerged in rainwater, while road connectivity to residential areas has been cut off.
Thoothukudi and surrounding areas of Ottapidaram, Kadambur and Kayathar recorded torrential rainfall of 35cm just on the night of December 17, followed by more the next day. Besides the breach at Korampallam tank, the Kombadi Odai, Uppar Odai and other streams in Ottapidaram also overflowed, which inundated areas like Muthammal colony, Kurinjinagar, Dhanasekaran Nagar, and Nataraja Nagar.
Sokesh, who lives in Muthammal Colony but has fled to Sivakasi with his family during the flood, told TNIE that although water has been cleared from his area, it is cut off from the main roads. The corporation has installed 100 motors, including 24 each with a capacity of 100HP, to pump out water. Thoothukudi mayor N P Jegan told TNIE that the pumped-out water has been drained into the stormwater drains (SWDs) in Bryant Nagar-Sathya Nagar, Karuthapalam, Bell hotel outlets, and fishing harbour outlets.
As a result, flood carriers and the Buckle Canal continue to brim with water even 10 days after the heavy downpour. Works on these channels, the mayor added, were completed expeditiously in the past two years.
While acknowledging water stagnation in low-lying pockets of north and south zones, mayor Jegan said,
“Water will be drained in a day or two. Given the quantum of rainfall, exceeding 35cm, water would have stagnated in all areas for more than a month. We have deepened tanks like Madankulam and Mullikulam which have saved residents of Sankaraperi and Ganga Parameswari Nagar in the north zone without stagnation”, he added.
The mayor further said that pumping out water has become easier because of the interlinking of canals and completing works on SWDs. He noted that no SWDs were proposed for the low-lying areas of the Muthammal colony under the Smart City Mission scheme during the previous government.
Corporation extends evacuation process to adjacent areas
Water in several hamlets under Mapilaiyoorani village panchayat is yet to be cleared. Mapilaiyoorani consists of 64 residential hamlets close to the Thoothukudi corporation. Over 20 hamlets are still knee-deep in water. Even the Thoothukudi-Rameswaran state highways remained flooded, as on Tuesday. There have been multiple protests over pumping out of water.
Despite the large size of the panchayat, there is no proper network of SWDs to drain flood waters, said a resident, adding the village was ignored by Ottapidaram MLA MC Shanmugaiah, who visited the area in the late hours fearing public outrage.
Mayor Jegan Periyasamy said that he had dug two canals, one to Gomespuram stream from the Kamaraj school area and the other from Poopandiyapuram to the Stem park area, to drain water. A government official said that district collector G Lakshmipathy had deputed officers to evacuate people.