Sewage discharge, garbage dumping and encroachments are major concerns in Coimbatore.


Whenever there is a reference to ground water level in the past, people recall with pride that nine tanks in and around the then municipality of Coimbatore had made this possible. As Coimbatore developed gradually, River Noyyal and the tanks filled by it began to feel the impact of urbanisation in the form of sewage discharge, garbage dumping and encroachment.

Now a vast green sheet of hyacinth covers most of the tanks as sewage enters these water bodies and threatens to pollute the aquifers. Sewage is food for the hyacinth. Unless the discharge of sewage is stopped, the tanks are as good as lost, say water resources conservation activists.

Siruthuli, a public initiative to conserve these resources, has removed the hyacinth from the Singanallur Tank and a couple of others on the western part of the city. But, the hyacinth returned with a vengeance because the sewage inflow was not stopped.

The Coimbatore Corporation hopes to end this problem with its Rs.443-crore underground drainage scheme. By making sewer connections compulsory, the option of discharge of waste water into tanks and canals can be eliminated, officials say.

Of the nine tanks that were in the municipality (later the city), the Ammankulam is a defunct tank. Already some tenements for the urban poor have been constructed and a few more are being built under the mission's project for Basic Services for the Urban Poor.

Read More on: The Hindu