Click to play videoChennai: The Centre had given Rs 493 crore in 2001 for the cleaning of the Coovum river. To add to that, the World Bank has given about Rs 22 crore this year for the same.
But the Tamil Nadu government doesn’t seem to be satisfied and wants more money.
“As a citizen of Chennai, I humbly request Sai Baba to give us the necessary funds to clean up the Coovum River,” says PWD Minister, Duraimurugan.
According to the government estimates, cleaning up Coovum, which flows through Chennai, will cost Rs 1,700 crore.
But sadly, cleaning of the river has ranked very low among priorities of subsequent state governments, which have been busy doling out sops like free colour televisions.
The Coovum is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, which are carriers of diseases like chikungunya, which rocked the city last year. Pollution of the river is caused mainly by effluents from ill-equipped sewage treatment plants. The plants were built to cater to only about half the current population of Chennai.
“Ninety per cent of pollution comes from sewage treatment plants and slums contribute less than 0.1 per cent of pollution in the Coovum, so if the government thinks it can solve the problem by removing the slums on the banks of the Coovum, it's not going to work,” says advocate and activist, T K Ramkumar.
Beautification plans for Coovum have been there since 1973 but not much has been done on that front over the years. And if you are dream of boating on the river, something promised by subsequent Tamil Nadu governments, it might remain a dream for a long time to come.
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