Metro Water, PWD officials on their toes

Even as the waters barely trickled down the rivers, all the interior and arterial roads were inundated. Public Works Department officials claimed that they have desilted these rivers, but admitted that large level encroachment and construction were the main reasons for rain water not flowing into the water bodies. 

V Mani, Superintending Engineer, Palar Basin circle said that since it had started raining only on Monday, not much water has flown into the rivers yet. “We can expect rainwater to enter these two rivers in a day or two.” He claimed that they desilted the rivers in a proper manner.   

PWD officials, however, claimed that they had started patrolling the lakes like Poondi Reservoir and Chembarambakkam lake and are on the watch for flooding. G Vijayakumar, Executive Engineer, Kosasthalayar basin, said, “We are continuously monitoring waterbodies. We are also in the process of diverting excessive water coming from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu waterbodies.” 

He further added that it will take two to three more days to increase storage in all the reservoirs. Another PWD official said they were keeping a tab on all the lakes particularly Chembarambakkam, which came under criticism in 2015 for release of water, causing floods. 

According to CMWSSB officials, highly-advanced equipment like Jed rodding machines and Super sucking machines are on standby to remove stagnant rainwater anytime. 

“We have instructed all the Area Engineers (AEs) to communicate to us regarding overflow of sewage and damaged manholes,” said an official. Officials are hopeful that good rains will pave the way for increased water storage in the city’s lakes.