Dharmapuri Municipality to renovate pumps, filtration system in Ramakkal lake

DHARMAPURI: Dharmapuri Municipality has decided to take steps to prevent pollution in Ramakkal lake, located within the Municipality limit. Municipality officials stated that efforts would be taken to prevent depositing plastic into the water bodies and renovate the filtration system.

The Ramakkal lake is spread over an area of over 259 acres and has a capacity of 33.5mcft. The water from this lake irrigates over 111 hectares. However, this lake has been severely polluted, especially due to the sewage water from the Municipality. To tackle this, a filtration system was set up here. But for the past few years, it had not been functioning.

 Commenting on the situation, K Selvam, a resident of Kumarasamipettai said, “With the municipality drainage water, a large number of plastic wastes are also deposited into the lake. When the lake overflowed recently, a large amount of plastic came out . It is sad to see the lake in such a pathetic state, he said.

Another resident from Dharmapuri, K Senthilkumar said, “The wastewater from the municipality and the surrounding panchayats flows into the lake, so to control the pollution, in 2015, a filtration system was set up at the cost of Rs 20 lakh. But the slit from the system should be cleared annually. This has not been done for the past few years. The filters are not functioning and the sewage water drains into the lake directly.

Commenting on the matter, officials in the Municipality said, We would be improving the canals and taking steps to eliminate plastic deposits into the lakes. Further, we urge residents to not dump plastic bottles, food waste covers into the drainages. The pumps of the filtration system have been damaged and efforts would be taken to renovate the pumps, they said.