Vandiyur lake locality faces water crisis

Madurai: With Gomathipuram, one of the major residential localities of Madurai, suffering from acute water crisis, the residents’ association has come out with a fact-finding report which claims that the area is being deliberately neglected by the corporation and the local AIADMK councillor despite the presence of Vandiyur lake in its vicinity from which water is supplied to 10 wards.

“An approximate 6 lakh litres of water per day is being drawn from 42 borewells sunk in and around Vandiyur lake in March 2014. But not a single drop of water is supplied by the civic body to Gomathipuram comprising 30 streets with 1,500 houses and which has two overhead tanks with a capacity of 60,000 litres each. However, other areas in the same ward (30) and neighbouring 10 wards are provided with either piped supply or tanker water by the corporation,” the Gomathipuram Thendral Nagar Residents’ Association has said.

The association claims that their locality is being neglected by AIADMK councillor A. Jeyakumar who in connivance with the private water mafia was against the residents’ initiative of creating percolation ponds in the Vandiyur lake to sustain water storage.

“We are being penalised by the councillor and the corporation engineer who give a misleading picture to the civic administration saying there is no source to distribute water when there are pipes going through our locality for supply of water to other wards,” an office-bearer said.

The association feels that the locality being occupied by the upper middle class, there is a ploy to keep it water-starved so that the residents would buy water from private distributors.

“Though areas such as Pandian Nagar, Melamadai, Vinayaga Nagar, Marudhupandi Street, Sathasiva Nagar and VOC Nagar in our ward suffer from groundwater depletion, they are ensured water through distribution from overhead tanks.

This apart, water is supplied through lorries to all these areas except Gomathipuram,” said the team of five members who studied the pattern and supply of water in the neighbouring areas.

According to the report, the corporation has sunk borewells in different locations within the Vandiyur lake - four to cater to Vinayagar Nagar, nine for five wards (29-33), nine for Bharathipuram, Vandiyur and Melamadai, 21 borewells to meet the needs of five wards (27, 28, 34, 44 and 45), one exclusively for Sadasiva Nagar despite some of these areas getting piped water supply. There are also two private RO plants, within a few metres from the lake, that tap groundwater.

“The survey clearly reveals that we are deliberately deprived of our water rights due to the mala fide intention of the elected representative and the water mafia,” they said.