Chennai: Water resources department (WRD) has begun a ₹7-crore project to restore the 120-acre Pallavaram Periya Eri, which has been choked by water hyacinth and affected by sewage and encroachments.Workers have started clearing the hyacinth. The project also includes desilting the lake, strengthening and reshaping its bunds, and improving its inlet and outlet channels to help it receive and retain rainwater.The WRD plans to restore three major inlet channels that bring water to the lake: one from the Tirusulam hills, another from Thiruneermalai through Moongil Eri, and a third from Veeraraghavan Lake through Chrompet. A senior WRD official said silt and other obstructions would be cleared to restore the channels’ carrying capacity.Encroachments remain a major challenge on the lake’s northern side, where officials have identified around 200 residential and commercial structures. Officials said these would be removed as part of the project.The department is also examining sewage inflows into the inlet channels, stretches of which now carry wastewater rather than rainwater. An official said sewage would have to be diverted to the underground sewerage system before the lake could be restored as a freshwater source.Residents welcomed the work but said removing encroachments and stopping sewage inflows must go hand in hand with desilting. They said sewage from buildings and tanker lorries continued to enter the lake.“It’s not just sewage. The southern side is being used as a dumping ground. Garbage is regularly burnt. Unless this is stopped completely, the restoration will not achieve its purpose,” said M Gandhi, president of the Pallavaram Residents’ Welfare Association.Pallavaram resident and activist David Manohar said RTI data had earlier shown about 1,300 encroachments around the lake, and claimed the number had since increased. He urged the corporation and WRD to verify the count. “Many commercial establishments are using the stormwater drains to dump sewage into the lake,” he said.Manohar added that reviving the lake could strengthen local water resources, with Pallavaram currently receiving only around 15.2 million litres of water a day.
