After waiting for three days for the administration to clear stagnant rainwater in their locality, residents of Thattankulam in Choolai took the task upon themselves and solved the problem in a day’s time.
After the rain a few days ago, the residents had to live in stagnant water which entered houses damaging electronic items. “Whenever it rains, our streets and houses are flooded. The stormwater drain, known as Malaria canal, is blocked and the civic authorities have not done anything to clear it,” said T. Vinayakam, a daily wage earner.
Three days ago, Egmore MLA K.S. Ravichandran visited the locality. “He promised to bring pumpsets and clear the water. But he never returned to even check our condition,” he charged.
Around a dozen residents of the locality gathered and first started desilting the stormwater drain. “We got inside and cleared the blocks,” said Chockalingam, another resident. After this the group created a small channel to the stormwater drain by digging the side of a road.
“We wanted to make a channel for the stagnant water to flow into the canal. After we did it, the water drained,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ravichandran said that the problem of flooding would end only if the government desilts all the canals before the monsoon.
“Many parts of my constituency were flooded and I was attending to all the complaints. The encroachments on an old canal, starting from Munuswamy Naidu Road to Pulianthope High Road should be cleared and desilted. Similarly, a canal running inside the Basin Bridge Thermal station that is linked to the Cooum should also be cleaned. If this is done there won’t be any flooding,” he said.