Urban News

The Hindu        21.08.2010

Corporation to educate public on dangers of causing blocks in drainage

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation has embarked upon an awareness campaign on the dangers of creating blocks in drainage in the wards where its Rs.377-crore underground drainage scheme is being implemented.

Out of the total 72 wards in the city, only 26 have underground drainage provided by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board. And, these areas come under the “old municipality”. These wards constituted the Coimbatore Municipality, which became a city corporation in 1981.

With a number of town panchayats and municipalities merged with the city since then, the number of wards increased by another 46. Now, these wards are being provided with underground sewers.

The Corporation is already battling the problem of blocks in the existing underground drainage. The blocks caused by the dumping of garbage, food waste from hotels and eateries and bio-medical waste from hospitals and laboratories lead to the leaking of sewage through manholes. Roads have to be dug up in order to remove the blocks.

In order to prevent this problem in the areas where the lines are being laid now, the Corporation has got into educating the public on the dangers of causing the blocks.

The civic has said in a press release that it launched this exercise on Independence Day. Handbills containing explanation of the menace, what contributed to it and what problems it created were being distributed.

Stickers conveying these points would be distributed across the project areas. These could be pasted on the inside of the doors of the toilets and on the premises of establishments where the abuse of the drains was likely to happen.

The Corporation referred to instances of workers dying of asphyxiation while trying to remove blocks in the drainage. This could be avoided only if the public refrained from abusing underground sewers.

The Hindu        21.08.2010

Residents complain of water contamination

Vasudha Venugopal

— Photo: V.Ganesan

The cause: Water stagnation due to the ongoing construction of the stormwater drain by the Chennai Corporation on Venkatanarayana Road, T. Nagar, on Friday.

CHENNAI: As many as 200 residents of Soundarajan Street of T. Nagar complained of acute water contamination on Friday. They alleged that water from the construction site of stormwater drain on Venkatanarayana Road, where Chennai Corporation is currently working, has not only seeped into drinking water pipes, but has also mixed with the water in their sumps.

“The digging has been going on for a month now, and the quality of water has been deteriorating since then,” said K. Natarajan, a resident of the area. The Metrowater officials inspected the water in the morning and found it unfit for use, but they should have alerted the residents, he added.

The residents complained that pedestrians and motorists found it hard to use the road. The barricades have been installed just a week before after a lot of complaints, a resident said.

A similar problem existed in the neighbouring area, namely Thomas Street, with around 100 flats, where residents complained of action not being taken for a week. “The only response we got was that the replacing of the broken pipeline had been postponed due to the rain, said N Balasubramanium, a resident of Nithya Homes.

Officials at Metrowater said they were in the process of replacing the sewage pipelines that have been damaged. “We are aware of the complaints and action will be taken soon,” he said.