The Times of India 16.09.2010
Sewage floods roads in Velachery locality
CHENNAI: Life, for the over 1,000 residents of Venus Colony in east Velachery, has become difficult for the past couple of weeks thanks to the heavy sewer overflow in the locality.
Velachery has, according to residents, always been beset with a host of civic problems. The present situation in Venus Colony is the perfect example of what a resident of the area faces daily. Hundreds of people, including children and elderly citizens, have been traumatized by the unbearable stench.
"For the past many weeks, sewage water has stagnated in the locality. It has become the breeding ground for mosquitoes. Most of the time we keep the windows and doors closed to keep out the bad smell. We also fear an outbreak of malaria is imminent," said Satish, a resident of the locality.
A short distance away, on First Street, Meenakshi Sundar, a resident, said that a woman and her children had recently slipped and fell into the gutter water while walking along the stagnant pool of sewage.
"Now school vans drop and pick up the children from Venus Colony 1st Street. So the kids from the 2nd Street find it hard to walk across the sewage discharge without getting their shoes and uniforms dirty," she said.
Even autorickshaw owners refuse to come into the area. "In case of an emergency, like taking someone to the hospital or rushing to catch a train, it becomes very difficult. We have to walk quite a distance before we can hail an auto," said S R Vaidyanathan, a long-time resident of the area.
S Kumararaja, secretary of the Federation of Velachery Residents Associations, said that the leakage was caused due to a damage in a sewer pipeline. "There is also a similar complaint from a locality called Anna Nagar in Velachery. Some residents have started complaining about sewage water having got mixed with the drinking water," he added.
Satish said that despite lodging a complaint with the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board ( CMWSSB), no action had been taken. "We fear that the situation may worsen once the monsoon starts. All the residents are concerned about their children's health," he said.
Meanwhile, an official attached to the CMWSSB's depot 153 in Rajalakshmi Nagar, Velachery, admitted that a sewage pipeline had been damaged. "The fault will be rectified in three days time," he said.
