Sewage mixed with rain water at road
The main road at Vasantham Nagar, Singanallur, in the city that residents dread to use.Residents of Vasanth Nagar in Singanallur are a harried lot during rain. Sewage-mixed rainwater overflows from a canal, inundates their colony and even enters sumps in which drinking water is stored.A portion of the main road leading to the colony is made up of only slush.There is no hard surface at all, residents complain. People have to plod through one-foot slush. Cars and trucks can manage to cross this portion and not two-wheelers, cyclists and pedestrians. One of the residents says that people living in SBI Colony, Balaji Nagar, Green Park Avenue and Thasami Park Residency have to use this stretch every day. Crossing this portion is an ordeal, they complain.The entire situation is caused by water from the canal and the people blame this on some buildings that have allegedly encroached a portion of the water way. The buildings are under litigation and they choke the flow of water, especially when there is a heavy flow during torrential rain. The lack of efforts to remove silt from the canal and also to deepen it is also being cited as reasons for the overflow.With rain water and sewage from the northern side of Tiruchi Road, the canal flowed to the southern side and coursed along the residential layouts. The residents say while the stagnation of water on the main road and bylanes frustrates them, dirt water entering their drinking water sumps makes living difficult in the colony during monsoon. This poses the threat of diseases, they point out.
There had been no response initially from the Coimbatore Corporation to complaints from the residents, they say.Fervent appeals later led to the civic body spreading a layer of gravel on the affected stretch. But the problem has been aggravated by earth excavated during drainage work.First piled up along the road, it spread all over during rain and has now turned into a thick sheet of slush.The residents say they have appealed to Mayor R. Venkatachalam and other authorities in the Coimbatore Corporation for a permanent solution.With more rain set to pound the city, they fear that the main road may become totally unusable. Copies of appeals have been sent to Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin and also officials of the Public Works Department.The residents have said in their appeal that steps should be taken to at least remove encroachments other than those under litigation so that water from the canal does not flow on to the road.
