The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : In Mugalivakkam, a residential colony that is under two feet of water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 15, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

In Mugalivakkam, a residential colony that is under two feet of water

K. Manikandan

Irate residents demand cleaning up of Manapakkam channel to drain floodwater

TAMBARAM: It has been nearly two months since some of the residents of Thiruvalluvar Nagar in Mugalivakkam near Porur went to their houses. The continuous downpour has left the locality submerged under two feet of water.

The problem, residents complained, was primarily due to the shrinking of the Manapakkam Channel and rain water from other areas entering their locality.

Soon after the heavy rain in October, especially the last week, the residents guessed they were in for troubled times and began shifting to relatives' homes elsewhere in the city. Just when they were preparing to return came the unprecedented rainfall on the night of December 3.

Ravin Carr, a resident, recalled that he came to his house around 8.45 a.m. on the morning of December 4 to pick up some things as he stayed back at his parents house in St. Thomas Mount.

"There was not much water when I entered the house. Thirty minutes later, when I was preparing to leave, there was three feet deep water on the streets," he recalled, adding many of the residents were shocked at the sudden increase in water level.

Though the residents appealed to the various government agencies, there was no action.

Residents of the M and M (Mugalivakkam and Manapakkam) Residents Welfare Association said surplus water from the Porur lake should drain into the Manapakkam Channel through Moulivakkam, Madha Nagar, Rajeswari Avenue and Mahalakshmi Nagar.

The channel — once 40 feet wide — drains surplus water from the Porur lake as well as the storm water into the Adyar river at Manapakkam.

Due to encroachments and poor maintenance, the flow of water was nil. "If the locality is under sheets of water, it is only due to the condition of the channel and nothing else," said K. Kumar, president of the association.

Recalling that some improvement works on the channel were carried out in 2002, residents said they were not sustained later as encroachments continued rapidly.

Calling for immediate steps to restore the channel to its original condition, residents said unless it was done, their plight would be the same in the monsoons to come.

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