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Acid rain in Chennai

Don't panic it is not literal acid but a metaphorical one. Probably Poes Garden, maybe Gopalapuram I can't imagine any other area in Chennai to be drained. So why is this? every time? we pray for rain and when it comes we are always unprepared, even for moderate showers our roads are flooded. Is it because Chennai is an old city and its infrastructure not enough for information age or is that because of the vote bank politics?

By now you'd have guessed what I quoted as 'Acid rain', it is that one created by the broadcasting network. Nowadays every political party is having its own network, you do the math and imagine the amount of 'Angel and Demon' perspective we are exposed to. From every network that is with the ruling party, we are shown the 'Angel face' emergency number, disaster recovery team, ambulance gushing thru flood, evacuation and so on. Other side which clearly outnumbers the ruling party in 4:1 ratio shows us flood, death, dengue, sewer mixing with water, stagnant water in the relief camp. I did my WhatsApp research water is not draining anywhere, if drains its too slow; who is to be blamed?


Let's come back to where we started, we pray for rain but we are unprepared. We are unable to drain, we are unable to store, essential resources are unreachable, we have to wait for fire and rescue team's inflatable boat to buy a packet of milk! who brought us to this level? If you think I'm going to say Vote bank politics, it's on your face. Yes, it is on your face, you did this, don't finch accept this we have work to do. We can't work a solution unless we come clean.


I was 13 years old when I saw a new road being laid bifurcating the lake behind our home. It was the work of honourable MCs and MLAs that laid the foundation to complete encroachment of Periya Lake which is essentially a pond now. 12 years have gone now the so-called 'educated' fellows living in CMDA approved plots have come to realize that letting them have that road is a mistake because for 6 months a year we have to depend on lorry for water in-spite of having second largest lake in Chromepet in the neighbourhood. Storage is all but gone! can you talk these people out of this place? can you imagine the amount of compensation that is to be given to them because they occupied dried up lake and no one cared?

Boundaries are for the purpose of illustration, not to measure 

You can have your argument it is clearly vote bank politics so they are not pulled out of the water resource. Yes and NO! for every lake of this size there suppose to be check dam, a canal of 15 ft that is going to carry excess water to another lake and at last to sea as last resort this was perfect planned suburb, you idiots! Pull the old files and see for yourself when the lake was occupied by "daily labours" the canal and the distribution mechanism was robbed by the "white collars". Where are the rest you can ask, well they benefited by collecting bribes from both of us! be it bureaucrats or politicians. It takes a lot of time, the 15 ft canal was reduced to 5 ft by my neighbours and the moment it crossed the road the canal is lost! yes, it is lost 'educated' uncles have encroached canal & constructed duplex and flats over it and so the 5 ft water flow is further diminished to 1 ft open drainage jeopardizing drainage forever. Hence the road is flooded and we have to wait for the rescue team.

Now for the fun part. Educated associations decided a week back that we have to store this rainwater in the lake to improve water table level and reinforced the illegal lake opening with cement (check dam is a house now). Yesterday officials turned up in our locality to find the lost canal with bulldozer 😂 What a turn around of events! Now the other side has grown brain and demands to find the 15ft canal, go search in your backyard its right there where you poured umpty rubbish and cement to construct an additional room for your future. So many constructions but not one for rainwater harvesting :( even wells are closed in my street I saw 2 wells being closed in the last 5 years.

Chennai is a perfectly planned city, take mine for example. Periya lake overflows into Nemilicherry Sivan kovil kulam, in-turn it overflows into Killkattalai lake then to Narayanapuram lake goes thru Pallikarai and finally mixes with the sea via Buckingham canal. It is us who did damage to her waterways, we need to accept the mistake, come clean and start cleaning, there is no point living in 2nd floor, away from the flood, you have come down to clean blocked sewer your kid's life is at stake.

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