Chennai: The overcast sky and intermittent showers seem to cause apprehensions of a repeat of the 2015 year-end disaster among residents of North Chennai. They hope that the state government will gear up its machinery and clean the Ennore Creek and remove blockages in the Buckingham canal before the NE monsoon invigorates.
A “Save Ennore Creek” online petition (http://chn.ge/2cZ095W) campaign launched on Tuesday urged Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa to “act before the rains.” North Chennai residents blamed Tangedco and NTECL for dumping flyash into the Ennore Creek – a backwater; and neighbouring wetlands. Last year, the CPCL petroleum refinery was marooned in floods and its production was disrupted for two days. Apart from being home to over 10 lakh people, North Chennai houses critical infrastructure like CPCL petroleum refinery, railway link connecting Chennai to the north and east and all of the city’s electricity generating stations.
During the December deluge, Ennore fishing villages deployed 120 boars and rescued over 30,000 stranded people from the low-income residential areas in the north. The floods were caused by the degradation due to pollution and industrial encroachments on poromboke wetlands associated with Kosasthalaiyar and Ennore Creek. In fact, far from being wastelands, Kazhuveli poromboke, Kalvai poromboke and Uppankazhi poromoboke areas in Ennore hold the key to safeguarding Chennai, say fishermen.
“People in North Chennai are very anxious about the imminent rainy season. They have not yet recovered from last year’s floods. They want the government to take measures ando protect them this year,” says Virgil D’Sami of Arunodhaya, an organisation that coordinated flood relief works in North Chennai in 2015.
Earlier, Magsaysay awardee T. M. Krishna, retired Madras gigh court judge Hariparanthaman, former state women’s commission chairperson Vasanthi Devi and transgender activist Sankari were among those who participated in the “Save Ennore Creek” campaign launch here.
