Encroachment of lakes/water bodies and flooded suburban Chennai
Posted on: 02/Nov/2017 3:00:02 PM
The shocking news that only 4087 lakes out of the 14098 lakes in the Chennai Metro City, which are under the PWD (Public Works Department) are maintained by PWD, came to be revealed only a few years ago as registered in one of the files maintained by PWD. The register mentions that over 10000 lakes are under the control of illegal encroachers.
A total of 14098 lakes are under the maintenance and control of the PWD water resources department. The other lakes are maintained by the local development administration. Out of this, around 13.5 lakh acres of agricultural lands get the water irrigation facility through the water resources under the control of PWD.
In this situation, the trend of rapid urbanization process has led to most of these water resources being encroached and occupied. Thus the total areas which were once water bodies have come down drastically.
To be specific, the waterbodies including lakes in the Chennai suburban areas such as Porur, Velachery.Perumbakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Pallikkaranai, Medavakkam, Vengaivasal, Chembarambakkam, Retteri, Puzhal, Ayanambakkam, Tambaram Lake, and Pallavaram lake are all under the control of encroachers.
Due to these encroachments, it has become difficult to store the rainwater during the monsoon rainy seasons which amounts to a total of about 100 tmc, gets wasted and goes to the sea.
Further, some selfish elements have encroached the lakes and canals and have built residences in these areas, thus blocking the path of the outlets for the rainwater.
The lakes like Narayanapuram lake, Nanmangalam lake, and Perumbakkam Lake in the Chennai suburban areas have all become residential areas now – as the excess water surrounding these areas have no outlets, these areas get completely surrounded by water severely affecting lakhs of residents in these areas.
It is the general public perception that the main reason for this pathetic situation is that PWD has not taken any stringent action on the encroachers.
