GCC, public pollute Nanmangalam Lake, nobody cares, fume residents, activists

For the last two years, residents of Nanmangalam have been trying to protect the Nanmangalam Lake from the local body which has been using it as a dump yard.

Incessant complaints to the civic body have been ignored, and they continue to dump waste around the lake.

In 2016, the municipality was dumping garbage in the lake instead of taking it to the dump yard. After a petition to the Chief Minister’s special cell, the municipality stopped the activity immediately.

“During the pandemic lockdown, the municipality again started dumping waste on the banks. And now even the general public has started doing the same. Though we kept requesting them not to dump waste, both local body and the public ignore us and continue to litter the place,” rued S Praveen, environmental activist, Nanmangalam.

Residents spotted sanitary workers burn the waste after dumping them near the bank. “This pollutes the entire locality. We are tired of raising complaints. Earlier, officials promised to restore the lake but till now, no official has visited the spot even for an inspection,” said M Kumar, a resident of Nanmangalam.

A senior official at Tambaram Corporation said that only door-to-door garbage collection was carried out. “We’re not dumping or burning waste near the bank. It might be private lorries who do that. We ensure the place is cleared at the earliest,” the officer said.