A group of about 200 plus volunteers gathered last morning at the Kuruchi Lake to take part in the cleanup drive. As part of this drive, the team of volunteers comprising of students, women, men, volunteers of various NGO's, Corporation workers, armed with cleaning equipments swung into action with zest to clean the water body.
This massive clean-up drive was held in association with the City Corporation who had eased the process by providing adequate manpower and required machinery support. A team of volunteers who are also the Swachh Bharat Ambassadors of Coimbatore Corporation initiated this cleanup drive. Over one tonne of garbage pertaining to plastic wastes like polythene bags, covers, bottles were cleared from this lake.
Women manned the earth movers that were used to clean this lake. 'These plastics not only hinders the pathway of the lakes but also degrades the water bed to an unimaginable extent, hence such cleaning drives will be initiated regularly to save our water bodies from degradation', shared a Volunteer.
Raveendran, President of Residents' Awareness Association of Coimbatore, who was also a part of this massive cleaning drive shares that 'The drainage of houses in Kurichi area is directed towards the lake. The residents dump all kind of plastic wastes in the drainage and as the drainage is directed to the lake, these trash gets deposited in the lake. When the lake is filled with water, none of the plastics will be shown out but as the lake dries up unbelievable amount of trash can be spotted at the lake bed.
Spread across 10 acres, over a tonne of trash mostly plastic wastes were removed from the lake and shores by volunteers, yesterday. Volunteers also uprooted 'Seemai Karuvellam' trees from the fringes of the lake.
Despite continued awareness, it is dis-heartening to see people still indulge in dumping plastic wastes in drainage and water bunds. The issue of re-directing the drainage wastes into lakes could be permanently resolved only by implementing underground drainage system. Above all, people should change their reckless attitude and instead contribute meaningfully for keeping our city and water bodies clean' said Raveendran.
An avid bird watcher from the city also shared that Kuruchi lake is a home for many migratory and home birds and that their team recently spotted a flock of seven Flamingos at this lake ( Known as ‘Poonaarai’ in Tamil). He further revealed that 'Dumping of plastics at this volume will alleviate the birds from using these water bodies as their breeding grounds. As, fodder for birds are mainly tadpoles and fishes, the hazardous plastic wastes will contaminate the water and kill all sources of fodder for the birds. Hence, lack of fodder will force these birds to move away to alternate places. Thus, the entire bio-diversity and eco-system gets altered due to dumping of wastes along the water bodies.
In recent times, many NGOs have joined hands with the City Corporation to restore the water bodies in our city which are flooded with wastes of all forms. Post restoration the entire area of Kurichi lake wore a fresh look.
