CHENNAI: Residents of Madambakam on the southern outskirts of the city are up in arms against the officials of local Panchayat for dumping garbage in the Lake and their inaction over illegal contaminants on the lake bed.“The town panchayat started dumping garbage on the lake bed which will cause irreparable damage to the lake and pollute the ground water,” said Lt Col CR Sundar, a resident. “Sometimes the garbage is on set fire and this causes air pollution. People have illegally constructed buildings on the lake bed with the help of mafia who are linked with local officials,” he claimed.The sewage waste, from houses built on the lake bed, flows through storm water drains and into the lake, contaminating the water body. “We have made several representations to the officials but of no avail,” he added.The Panchayat, however, claims to have its own issues. “There is no land available in Madambakam to dump the garbage,” says President Malliga Mohan of Madambakkam Panchayat, confirming that the local body has been dumping waste in the lake. “The government has allotted a dumping site about 10km away from Madambakam due to shortage of land, the site is situated near a stone quarry which is 100ft deep. It is not safe for lorries to ply on it, so we have started dumping near the lake.”Responding to a query on encroachments, she said that the issue had been taken up with higher authorities and action would soon be taken. Madambakam Lake supplies drinking water to around two lakh residents. This also happens to be among the few lakes in the southern suburbs of Chennai that supports irrigation, water from this lake is used to irrigate hundreds of acres.Besides land grabbing and garbage dumping, another issue which has been troubling the residents is the proposed installation of a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) by the local body at the mouth of the lake. The residents said that it will destroy the lake and leave the locals with no water.The project ran into controversy after residents protested against its installation. A PIL was filed against the plant and the court ruled that the project should commence only after obtaining clearance from the respective departments, including the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. The authorities went ahead with the project without clearance from the TNPCB, Lt Col Sundar said. “We were shocked to learn that the authorities had offered a parcel of poromboke land at the mouth of the lake for an STP,” said Brigadier Mohan Thomas, another resident. “They did not even consult with people living in the locality before putting forward the plan, the site of the proposed plant is just a few hundred metres away from the lake.” During monsoon, the problem worsens. The rise in the water-level in the lake means floods every year that is followed by the foul smell. Several representations to the state government have been in vain,” he laments. Malliga claims all problems will be solved, once the `54.45crore STP at Valan Nagar, part of the Under Ground Drainage System, is executed by the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), under the centrally funded Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.“The project is completely safe. Like Chitlapakkam and Sembakkam, we don’t have huge tracts of lands far from residential areas. The CMWSSB asked us for land to set up the STP and we went for this. Thirty million litres of sewage and sullage water will be treated every day and discharged into the Buckingham Canal (15km away on ECR) through underground pipelines,” the Madambakkam Panchayat President told City Express.Even as the officials are confident that they would get clearance, the residents are determined to continue their protests to save the lake.
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