Sewage outfalls remain to be unplugged along Chennai's three rivers

CHENNAI: It has been five years since the Metro Water Board identified 337 sewage outfalls along three rivers of Adyar, Cooum and Buckingham Canal, but negligible progress has been made to plug these. An RTI filed by Express reveals that since 2014, no efforts have been carried out to identify and enumerate new outfalls across the city. 

In a reply to the RTI received on December 24, 2018, the board said that only 121 outfalls have been plugged since 2014. Data provided by the board showed that there are 49 outfalls along Adyar River, 183 along Buckingham Canal and 105 at Cooum River Basin. But, these were identified nearly five years ago and data regarding new outfalls in the city’s expanded areas has not been collected till now. As long as existing outfalls aren’t terminated and new ones aren’t identified, government’s effort to clean up these rivers will remain redundant, said experts.

There are different types of outfalls. In some cases, residents who lack underground sewage connections, illegally dispose of their waste through stormwater drains into these rivers. And in the other cases, it is alleged that raw sewage is let into water bodies directly from Metro Water’s pumping stations due to the lack of sufficient capacity. 

Express visited different locations in the city where unplugged outfalls were visibly spewing raw sewage into the rivers. These include Thiru Vi Ka bridge in Adyar, under Jafferkhanpet bridge near Ekkaduthangal, under Maraimalai Adigal bridge in Saidapet, eastern side of Ethiraj Salai bridge in Egmore, along ECR Link Road, along Burma Colony in MGR Nagar, sewage discharge into Pallikaranai Marshland through stormwater drains and near Sathyamurthy Nagar along Manali highway. 

According to civic activist group Arappor Iyakkam’s report in 2017, of the 27 pumping stations that the members audited in person, 10 were letting raw sewage into nearby water bodies without sending it to designated treatment plants. 

One such case can be found at the sewage pumping station on Greams Road that has been taking place unperturbed for two years now. Less than 50 metres away from the station, a pipe can be seen discharging a large quantum of untreated sewage into the Cooum River. Locals and activists allege that this pipe originates from the pumping station and dumps raw sewage into the Cooum as the inflow of waste water is much more than its capacity of 14 MLD.

Metro Water officials from the pumping stations denied the above claims and were not aware of such a pipe discharging sewage. 

Members of the Iyakkam allege that since there is no sewage treatment plant located on Greams Road, it is raw sewage that is being discharged into the Cooum. “There are four to five wells inside the pumping station which is supposed to carry sewage to the Koyambedu treatment plant. But as the inflow is twice the station’s capacity, it is discharged into water bodies nearby,” said C R Balaji, a civic activist, who was part of the audit.

Another reason behind this activity is the delay in construction of a 10 MLD treatment plant near Langs Garden. “Two years ago, when we spoke to the former Metro Water Board managing director, he told us that once this STP is built, excess sewage will not be let into the Cooum and instead will be diverted to the STP. But, till now, hardly any progress has been made in its construction,” said Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam.

List of unplugged outfalls as given by Metro Water Board
● Under the bridge on Sastri Nagar Church Road
● Under Erukancherry causeway and under bridge on Meenambal Salai in Kodungaiyur
● Two outfalls under the bridge opposite to Tondiarpet High Road
● Near 5th street at Teacher’s Colony
● Under Kauvery Salai bridge
● Under Thiruvalluvar Bridge on 5th Main Road and 2nd Main Road in TV Nagar