The Hindu 19.11.2013
1.6 lakh illegal sewer lines identified
The Chennai Corporation has identified 1.6 lakh illegal sewer inlets into stormwater drains (SWDs) across the city.
The
civic body has already initiated efforts to block them and prevent
sewer getting into the underground network essentially meant to drain
rainwater.
Following a drive conducted by the civic
body’s Public Health Department to screen all stormwater drains for
identification of illegal sewer connections, 373.23 km of the drains
were identified as being clogged with sewage from illegal inlets.
The
number of illegal sewer connections from buildings in residential and
commercial neighbourhoods is 52,399. As many as 621 slum localities have
1,08,400 illegal sewer connections.
Stormwater
in the zones of Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru.Vi.Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar,
Teynampet, Ambattur, Kodambakkam, Alandur, Valasaravakkam and Adyar is
drained through 836.4 km of drains maintained by theCorporation.
Royapuram
zone has the largest number of connections with 11,069 buildings
letting sewage into the stormwater drains of the Corporation. In
addition to such buildings, 26,200 tenements in 131 slum neighbourhoods
in Royapuram also pollute the storm water drains. The numbers of illegal
connections in other zones are 11,069 (Tondiarpet), 3,369 (Thiru-Vi-Ka
Nagar), 2,240 (Anna Nagar), 4,478 (Teynampet), 5,050 (Kodambakkam), 125
(Valasaravakkam), 4903 (Alandur) and 6,752 (Adyar).
As
many as 26,200 slum households in Tondiarpet, 9,400 in Thiru-Vi-Ka
Nagar, 15,600 in Anna Nagar, 24,000 in Teynampet, 9,200 in Kodambakkam
and 12,800 in Adyar have also been identified with illegal sewer
connections. The zonal officials in such zones have been asked to
persuade the residents to disconnect their illegal sewer connections.
The civic body has also asked Chennai Metrowater to provide proper sewer
connections for such buildings.
But the Corporation
is unable to take steps to disconnect illegal sewer connections in slum
tenements that are encroaching on land in the city. The civic body will
wait for the resettlement of such residents by the Tamil Nadu Slum
Clearance Board before taking measures to plug such connections.
Over
12,000 of such households will shift to areas such as Perumbakkam next
year. The Corporation has also asked zones with fewer numbers of illegal
connections to collect another set of data as the actual numbers are
expected to be more than two lakh.
Several years ago,
Metrowater, after a similar exercise to identify illegal inlets into
the stormwater drains, had introduced a programme asking families below
the poverty line to pay a mere Rs. 100 for securing water or sewer
connections.