CHENNAI UNDER WATER - Awareness Video 2011 - by Samarpan Foundation

How to prevent groundwater contamination and flooding in Chennai ...
If you love Chennai/India then please watch the 2min video:
CHENNAI UNDER WATER - Awareness video 2011 ... on our channel.
... please click on "like" and spread the video to help create an awareness
about the problem and the prominent solution to it! ... Thank you! :-)

For more information please visit: http://www.samarpanfoundation.org

Chennai! A city under siege.
Unfortunately, the civic body and the general public are totally unaware.
Global warming has raised its head with devastating effects in the suburbs of Velachery and surrounding areas.

To begin, the stagnant water problem is not simple stagnation that could be drained, but a "backing up" of the tidal waters of the estuary via the sub-soil strata from the Buckingham Canal. This leads to the contamination of the ground water and weakening of the foundations of buildings in the area.

The only workable solution is to plant salt accumulating mangrove species, which would absorb the salt and freshen the water.

The other long lasting solution would be to re-concrete and re-line the Buckingham Canal and provide locks to regulate the inflow.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. How does the flooding take place?

A. The Buckingham Canal has several openings into the sea- namely the Cooum River, Adyar Estuary and the Muthukaddu Estuary. During high tide the water starts flowing into the Buckingham Canal via these estuaries. Unfortunately there is no way for the water to flow out, except through seepage from the canal banks into the surrounding areas.

Q. How can this be remedied?

A. The first and most obvious way is by providing locks at the junctures between the estuaries and the canal. A more lasting solution would be re-concreting and re-lining of the canals to prevent seepage.

Q. What is the government's view on this?

A. The government is happy to turn a blind eye to the actual cause of the problem. It is convenient for them to look at the flooded areas as mere water logging. This attitude helps them to construct drains from the water logged areas to the canal and the sea (like all public works an enormous amount of money can then be siphoned off). These drains however facilitate the flow of tidal water back into the flooded areas during high tide.

Q. Is there any danger to Chennai at large?

A. The first and most pressing problem is the contamination of all the ground water making it brackish and unpotable. The second and more long term problem is the weakening of the foundation of all buildings, particularly those that do not have pilings.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• buckingham
• canal
• solution
• samarpan
• foundation
• bay
• of
• bengal
• Mangrove
• coouvm
• river
• adyar
• estuary
• muthukaddu
• flooding
• india
• drains
• government
• thiruvanmiyur
• high
• tide
• groundwater
• Global
• warming
• tsunami
• nature
• samarpanfoundation
• romaine
• san
• francesco
• patrick
• charitable
• environment
• solidarity
• knowledge
• contamination
• how-to
• cyclone
• Flood
• risk
• suburb
• area
• Monsoon
• season
• catastrophe
• prevention
• Madras
• Tamil
• Nadu
• Coromandel
• Coast
• metropolitan
• southeast
• coast
• Koovam
• Brackish
• howto