Coimbatore, Nov. 03: In what could be a disastrous situation to thousands of people living on the banks of Muthannankulam Lake in Coimbatore, the bunds of the lake may suffer a breach.
The lake is situated near Gandhi Park, close to the Thadagam Road and is one of the favourite host lakes to various migratory and local resident birds. This is the second time the bunds have started breaching because of external sources.
According to the local people, the bunds of the lake started deteriorating when a construction work commenced nearby. “This had happened earlier when they drilled the ground. But the work was stopped and the bund was strengthened using sandbags,” said a local.
More than five hundred houses are near the Northern and Eastern bunds of the lake and in case of any breach, water from the lake would inundate the entire area including all the houses.
Since the water storage in the tank has rapidly gone up during the monsoon, there are high chances for a near Chennai deluge in the area. Even Chennai suffered during 2015 only because 30,000 cusecs was released from the Chembarambakkam lake.
“If they continue with the construction nearby, then the bunds of the lake would keep deteriorating and the end result would be a disaster to all the inhabitants,” added a resident.
In order to assess the situation, officials from the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) are inspecting the lake. Senior officials with CCMC said that they would first try and avoid the breach to get any bigger and block it using sand packets.