Chennai: The path made by the truck to bring dangerous biomedical waste and solid waste to Lake Porur in Chennai will be sealed as an initial effort to revive one of the shrinking water bodies in the city, Minister Ma Subamanian said on Saturday.
The police will intensify monitoring around the lake and begin legal action against private hospitals and local bodies that illegally dispose of waste in the lake area, he said.
The minister, who examined the lake with a senior government official, walked through the junk mound that surrounded the lake, which was one of the secondary sources of drinking water for Chennai.
“Lake 252 Acre now has water in just around 60 hectares.
The remaining area is covered with waste or karuvelam plant (prosopis Juliflora).
We found that trucks from neighboring areas such as Thelliaragaram, Koluthuvanchers and Solid Waste Dump Iyyappanthangal in the lake area.
Some ferry trucks Medical waste from private hospitals, “he said, considering media reports and observations by the court.
“If we succeed in cleaning up the garbage and reviving the lake, we will be able to save an additional 1-2 TMC drinking water for the city,” he told reporters after the inspection.
The minister said they would submit a detailed inspection report to the head of Minister M K Stalin.
“For the long term, we might have to build a wall around the lake to protect the body of the water.” In the mid-1990s, Chennai Corporation under Mayor M K Stalin built a fence on the front of the lake to stop people from walking into the water to wash clothes and livestock.
“DMK set the protest when Aiadmk tried to throw away some sand trucks to change the body of the water into the ground.
We will ensure this lake is revived,” he said.