‘We No Longer Pay For Water’: These Chennai Citizens Dedicated 7 Years to Revive a 50-Acre Lake

Remember the movie Mudhalvan or Nayak where legendary actors Raghuvaran and Amrish Puri played the role of a chief minister who challenges the journalist played by Arjun and Anil Kapoor to take his chair for a day after the character puts him on a spot? 

The movie took on a huge task of showing the power of a common man in bringing about change. 

Well, in a town near Chennai, there are a bunch of young ‘Nayaks’ (lead characters), who have taken on the mantle to save their town, especially their lake. They aren’t challenged by the Chief Minister during a debate, nor are they given the limelight or power or money. They are simply doing it because if not them, who will do it?

“Social activism runs in the DNA of the people of Chitlapakkam,” laughs L Sundararaman. 

Chitlapakkam Rising members

Chitlappakam residents are shining examples of the power of community who prove that you need to be the change you wish to see in the world. 

Tired of no resolutions for the civic issues that plague the neighbourhood, they banded themselves together into different citizens welfare associations starting in the 90s. Different forms of peaceful protests were held to bring notice to the most pressing issues. 

A human-chain also prevented a government plan from building more houses in the area!

Then came December 2015 which was a period of a time most Chennai residents would never forget. The monsoon left behind a trail of devastation, and exposed the impact of poor urban planning. 

The residents of Chitlapakkam, too, faced the brunt of the floods. This time, a volunteer group in the area, Chitlapakkam Rising (CR), took on the mantle of saving and restoring the lake. 

Starting with petitions, postcard campaigns, street plays, and songs in 2017, residents left no stone unturned to bring to attention the ‘dying lake’ that needed a lifeline. 

The postcard campaign

When continued efforts and petitions to the government bore no fruit over two years, the founding team along with a few volunteers of CR took matters into their own hands. Despite having a 50-acre water source in their midst, their borewells had dried up and they had to pay for their water. 

A massive #SavingChitlapakkamLake campaign was launched in 2019, where hundreds of citizens came together to clean the lake. This ultimately caught the attention of the Tamil Nadu government, who later sanctioned Rs 25 crore for the lake restoration project a year later.

Still don’t believe in the power of social activism and citizen uprising? This incredible story will change your mind.

We won’t let this lake die!

For these residents, 2016 was a very bad year as their borewells and even open wells had no water. Dayanand Krishnan, advisor to the CR and a civil engineer, recalls those horrific days.

How citizens transformed the lake

“There wasn’t even a drop of water in our homes. Some people even noticed contaminated black water in their borewell. Despite several protests, there was no action by the government. I had to pay for water, with a lake right in my backyard,” says Dayanand. 

The Chitlapakkam Lake, which is about 100 years old according to the residents, was in a poor shape. This was highlighted every rainy season, according to Sunil Jayaram, one of the founding members of the group.

In the aftermath of the 2015 floods, when they analysed the root cause of the problem, they found the answer in this lake.

“This lake was in a state of total neglect. Garbage was dumped on one side and the entire lake was filled with hyacinths,” says Sunil. 

Chitlapakkam has had very strong citizens associations since the late 80s/90s. L Sundararaman, President, Chitlapakkam Muthulakshmi Nagar Welfare Association, who moved here in 1987, remembers the lake having less water even at that time. 

It catered to the agricultural lands in the area in its heyday. 

Thanks to urbanisation, the lake slowly lost its glory. However, when the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) tried to construct houses around the lake, associations similar to Sundararaman’s halted it.

“We formed a Coordination Committee of Chitlapakkam Associations with one of the major goals being preservation of the lake. We protested against the TNHB’s move, including forming human-chains, and successfully halted their construction plan,” he says.

A Chitlapakkam Lake Preservation Committee also successfully constructed a bund across the lake in 2000, adds the resident. 

“Each resident contributed Rs 100 voluntarily to build the bund. The government contributed an equal amount and this is one of the major reasons for preserving the existing area of the lake,” adds the retired BSNL employee.

A protest conducted by Chitlapakkam residents in the early 2000s

Despite these efforts, even in 2015, the lake was not able to fulfil its basic purpose, i.e. recharge groundwater. What made it worse was a three-acre area on the northern side of the lake, which had become a garbage dumpsite. 

The citizens, now led by Chitlapakkam Rising, wrote petitions to the water resources department to clean the lake. A water audit conducted by the team found that there was an enormous amount of sewage entering the lake. In fact, it was called ‘Saakadai Eri’ (Sewage Lake). 

Post the water audit, the then small team of Chitlapakkam Rising decided to bring this to the attention of the residents. What followed was a slew of relentless citizen movements, starting with the postcards sent to the government. When various measures didn’t work, they started cleaning up on their own.

The CR team includes Sunil, Udaya, Ezhil, Udhayavani, Dayanand, Jai, Anand, Sudhakar, Ramkumar, Vaithy, Murali, Sujay, Suguna and Baalu. 

A few members of the Chitlapakkam Rising team started cleaning the lake every weekend with the #SavingChitlapakkamLake slogan. Over time, the numbers increased, from a handful to a huge team, leading to a mass movement.  Every weekend, hundreds of children, women and men, senior citizens assemble to bring their dear lake back to its original sheen.

“The lake was inaccessible due to years of neglect. Despite years of efforts in the form of postcards, petitions, protests, candlelight vigils, the government didn’t pay heed. That’s when we planned the mass cleaning drive in June 2019,” says Sunil.

After initial cleaning, the team wanted to desilt the lake for which they secured permission from the Tamil Nadu’s government’s water resource department.

The lake today is bustling with people

On 2 June, 2019, over 2,000 people came to the lake for this purpose. This continued for several weeks, and the event drew the attention of people across the state thanks to social media. 

This volunteering activity finally reached the eyes and ears of the government, with the then Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami personally paying a visit and sanctioning Rs 25 crore for the Chitlapakkam lake restoration project in the state assembly in 2020.

The 4D Model

The team suggested to the government a scientific method to restore the lake called the 4D principle — Deflect, Drain, Desilt and Deepen. 

Dayanand explains the methodology.

Step 1: Deflect – To prevent sewage from entering the lake, sluice gates were constructed at all inlets. A foreshore peripheral sewage interceptor carries the daily sewage to a sewage collection well which is attached to a STP (Sewage Treatment Plant), he explains.

Step 2: Drain. Once the sewage was deflected, the sewage water stored in the lake over years was drained through a sluice outlet, making the lake dry and free of dirt.

Step 3: Desilt: Poor quality soil was removed and the lake was desilted completely. 

Step 4: Deepen: To ensure rainwater storage and prevent flooding, the lake was deepened by 2.5 metres. This was done after proper soil studies of the lake bed. 

After the lake was nursed back to health, one question still remained – How do you make it accessible for people? The civic group conducted a poll on their Facebook page, and based on the responses, these amenities were added.

A walking path, play area, open air gym, amphitheatre, basketball court, and greenery were added to make the lake a recreational hub for the residents. Today, it is a symbol of energy and happiness every morning and evening, as hundreds of people gather for their morning walks, children play, and everyone has a joyful time. 

It is a shining beacon of hope for what can be achieved through collective efforts. Since October 2023, the CR team has also conducted lake walk tours for residents from other localities who wish to replicate this model. 

They are the real life Nayaks, out to bring change in the world, one lake at a time.  

Edited by Padmashree Pande, Images Courtesy: Dayanand Krishnan.

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