With the monsoon picking up pace, pouring down in most of the District from Monday, the dried up lakes of the texcity are sure to get ample water. But the filling has turned out to be a tedious process because of the encroachment on the channels leading to the water tanks.
Coimbatore was gearing up well for the monsoon and the preparations in the form of desilting the lakes and cleaning the bunds helped the tanks by and large to hold ample water thereby proving as a good water source during dry seasons and helping the birds.
The Vellalore Rajavaikkal (Raja canal) made by the late Chozhas diverted from River Noyyal, was one of the water channels that were desilted and cleared tirelessly by NGOs in order to allow water to the dried up Vellalore lake. Members of various organisations along with the Kovai Kulangal Pathugappu Amaippu cleaned the channel near the Aathupalam check dam for three weeks.
However, an ample portion of the channel, upto 6.5 kms after the check dam has been encroached upon for many years by individual settlers. As many as 1400 houses lie right on the water channel blocking the water from entering the Vellalore Lake after an odyssey through various places.
In addition to the blocking, the channel has been dumped with various wastes. The channel is filled with plastic wastes and even sewage from individual houses has been linked to the channel clogging the path and also polluting the fresh water pathway.
In order to stop the pollution the district administration was petitioned continuously to shift the houses from the banks of the channel to some other location for a long time, yet the shifting process has not begun.
“The process is mocking upon the hard work of the volunteers who have toiled to clean the channel. Now that the monsoon has begun, if the channel is not cleared of encroachment then all the water would be wasted” said R. Manikandan, coordinator of the Kovai Kulangal Pathugappu Amaippu.
He further added that officials must act immediately in clearing the encroachments.
The association on Tuesday petitioned the District Administration and officials have said that shifting would begin from Friday. Tokens have also been given to 1400 individual house owners for whom houses will be allotted at a different spot.