Metro water lets sewage into Villivakkam lake

Chennai: In a gross violation of the environmental norms, the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board has encroached part of the large Villivakkam lake to construct a sewage pumping station. Raw sewage is being let into the lake, thus killing its thick mat of vegetation.

The pumping station constructed on the part of the 39-acre lake leaves a threat of contamination of the water body. “During power cuts and rains, there is a chance for the raw sewage to get into the fresh water body. How can a polluting industry like a pumping station be constructed on the lake premises?” questioned Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam.

A metro water official from Villivakkam admitted the threat, as he said: “It has been six months since the pumping station was constructed. There were incidents of the sewage overflowing into the lake.”

According to the metro water officials, the pumping station collects raw sewage from Phase 1 of Villivakkam and Jaganathan Nagar to send it to the Kodungaiyur Sewage treatment plant.  

With faecal matter on one side and debris on the other side, the lake resembles a massive garbage bin. Activists rue that the inlets and the outlets of the water body is completely blocked, thus posing a threat of floods during the rains.
Arappor Iyakkam had filed a case at the National Green Tribunal to restore the 39-acre lake. Producing the affidavit filed by the Chennai metro water, Jayaram Venkatesan told the tribunal that the department is willing to rejuvenate only 29.5 acres, as the rest of the land wo-uld be used for the pumping station. Apart from the government agencies, private tankers also deposit the untreated sewage into the water body, said, residents.

“Metro rail had been dumping the debris here. Now, the private tankers are leaving out the sewage during the nights,” lamented Chandramohan, a civic activist from Villivakkam. The interference of government and private entities has killed the lake, with no birds visiting it for many years.