Chennai water board takes up repair of damaged sewer lines across the city

The CMWSSB received 10,252 complaints related to sewage overflow and sewage mixing with drinking water; a majority of the complaints were from Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar, Kodambakkam and Adyar

The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) has taken up emergency work to repair sewer lines that were damaged due to bursts or leaks in pipelines, at various locations across the city.

This northeast monsoon, the board has received 10,252 complaints related to sewage overflow and sewage mixing with drinking water. Of these, a majority of the complaints are from Areas 6 (Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar), 10 (Kodambakkam) and 13 (Adyar). As many as 9,878 complaints have been resolved.

Officials said that nearly 980 million litres a day of sewage, which is twice the normal quantum of sewage collected in the network, was pumped on days when there was heavy rain. This led to sewer lines caving in at 55 locations in November. In addition to repairing these, the CMWSSB has taken up emergency work to repair old pipelines, which had burst.

Major repair work was carried out recently on Perambur Barracks Road, to fix a damaged pipeline, which had caused the road to cave in. Similarly, work is on to complete the repair on a sewer line in Avvaiyar Street, Madhavaram zone, the officials said.

Complaints regarding bursts or leaks in sewer pipelines were received from 158 locations and work is being carried out in the remaining 33 locations.

“We have increased the number of water samples lifted from 200 wards for testing in our laboratory. About 3,300 water samples are being tested daily,” said an official.

Besides operating 323 sewage pumping stations round the clock during rainy days, the CMWSSB is focussing on fixing damaged manholes. “We had received complaints of sewage overflow in 2,313 manholes in November and a majority of the complaints had been solved,” said an official.