Deccan Chronicle 04.01.2010

Jan. 3: The mixing of sewage in the ecologically restored water bodies of Adyar Poonga that are part of the ambitious Rs 100 crore nature restoration project of the state government on January 1 has caused widespread concern about the cooperation extended by other civic bodies to the two-year old project.

While metro water and sewage board authorities are trying to solve the problem, the people in charge of restoration are worried that their hard work over the last year may be wasted.

“Some sewer lines have broken close to the Poonga leading to mixing of sewage in fresh water bodies inside the park. The accident has led to death of aquatic life,” said an official involved in the restoration project. “The repair work is on now. We hope to restore the water bodies soon,” he said.

The incident was a major jolt to the 58-acre Poonga that is scheduled to open to the public in November. “It was hard work for over 18 months that restored the water bodies. The restoration was so good that it invited migratory birds to Adyar creek after many years,” said another restoration official requesting anonymity.

The accident has made the officials of the implementing agency of the project, Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund, CMWSSB and Chennai Corporation are to put their heads together to avoid such accidents in future.

“I have called for a meeting of officials from Chennai corporation and CMWSSB on January 5 to avoid recurrence of such accidents,” Mr K. Phanindra Reddy, CEO, MD, TNUIFSL, told this newspaper.

The Hindu 04.01.2019

Making a celebration out of cleanliness drive

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: If one thought that the ongoing Coimbatore Vizha was just a medley of art and cultural events, what happened at Vadavalli on Sunday sought to change that opinion. Cleaning a 2-km stretch of a main road and a bus stand was turned into a celebration to go with the spirit of the nine-day fete.

The Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) teamed up with Young Indians, the Vadavalli Town Panchayat and students of Kumaraguru College of Technology to clean a part of the Marudamalai Road from the bridge at Karuparayan Temple to a little beyond the bus stand.

Waste dumped along the road was removed by the participants of the clean environs drive and shops and other commercial establishments were requested to co-operate with the drive launched by the association and the local body to keep the area clean.

RAAC’s honorary secretary R. Raveendran, who took part in the drive, said what was done on Sunday was similar to what the association had been doing over the last few years as part of its Alagana Kovai programme.

Under the programme, RAAC had covered various residential and commercial areas to rid these of garbage, shrubs along roads and to close potholes on these stretches. In each area, residents groups were also roped in to carry out the drive.

On Sunday, however, residents associations were not involved as the drive was carried out by the association and the town panchayat. President of the local body Amirthavalli Shanmughasundaram, former President V.M. Shanmughasundaram and councillors took part in the drive. “We found a lot of waste from hotels and eateries, banana leaves, vegetable and fruit dumped along the road. While removing these, we appealed to the shops not to dump waste on the roads. We asked them to store the waste in bins and hand it over to the town panchayat’s conservancy workers,” Mr. Raveendran said.

Vadavalli was chosen as the venue for the programme as part of the Coimbatore Vizha as a cleanliness programme was already on in the town panchayat, he explained.

Mr. Raveendran said there was nothing different in Sunday’s event from what RAAC was consistently doing in propagating clean environs.