Dumping of waste into Kodappamund channel leads to parts of Ooty town being flooded

Unrestricted dumping of plastic, medical waste, and animal carcasses in Kodappamund channel causing flooding in Udhagamandalam town.

The unrestricted dumping of plastic and medical waste, and even animal carcasses into the Kodappamund channel continues to cause low lying parts of Udhagamandalam town to become inundated with overflowing rain and sewage water during spells of moderate rain.

On Monday evening, a brief shower that lasted for around two hours and brought with it around 50 millimeters of rain to Udhagamandalam town led to the bus depot attached to the Udhagamandalam bus stand becoming flooded.

Areas surrounding the bus stand as well as railway station became flooded and traffic had to be stopped till the waters subsided to ensure the safety of road users.

On Tuesday, a visit to the mouth of the Kodappamund Channel, which starts off as a pristine stream from Doddabetta less than five kilometers upstream, and gradually becomes polluted by sewage and waste that gets dumped into the channel, showed that the outlet pipe that drains into the Ooty Lake, choked with tonnes of plastic.

Workers employed by the Water Resources Department said that they had been working since 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, to remove waste and debris that had collected at the mouth of the outlet pipe at the sewage treatment plant in Udhagamandalam.

They complained that apart from the tonnes of plastic waste that blocks the pipe, they also find used syringes and medical waste that is dumped into the channel making its way to the facility. “People even dump animal carcasses, including pet animals that have died, into the channel,” said one of the workers.

Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) officials said that the sudden rains had led to delays to bus services, but said that most of the water that had entered the bus depot had drained by Monday evening. “We have also written to the WRD to further desilt the Kodappamund channel so that its capacity to carry waste water during spells of heavy rain is increased,” said the official.