While the recent trend has been civic action to reclaim local waterbodies, here is a pond that has become a parking lot.
It began with rampant dumping of garbage on the banks, and subsequently into the waterbody near Melmaruvathur railway station on the Grand Southern Trunk Road. Over the years, the pond has transformed into a parking lot.
While the Kizh Maruvathur village panchayat is said to have taken up this conversion of the pond into a parking lot, around 180 works of revival and rejuvenation of waterbodies were taken up in the rural pockets of Kancheepuram district under the Integrated Watershed Management Programme in the last financial year.
Enquiries revealed that initially, the northern bund of this pond, spread over two acres, was used as a dumping ground for garbage generated during festival seasons. Slowly, the area of garbage dumping extended into the waterbody and almost half the waterbody was filled up with garbage over the years.
Subsequently, the Kizh Maruvathur village panchayat under whose domain this pond falls decided to cover the garbage with river sand and level the area for using it as vehicle parking lot. More recently, 50 per cent of the area was used for putting up shops during festival seasons apart from using it as a parking lot, sources said.
Meanwhile, the District Watershed Development Agency has claimed that various works of revival and rejuvenation of waterbodies coming under the control of village panchayats have been carried out successfully under the IWMP project being implemented in six blocks from the financial year 2009-10.
They have been carried out in Achirapakkam, Uthiramerur, Lattur, Chithamur, Madurantakam, Wallajahbad, Thirukazhukundram and Tirupour blocks, officials said.
Recently, a team of Union Government officials inspected the works carried out under IWMP at Karikili hamlet in Achirapakkam block.
