As the panchayat does not have a designated dumping ground, residents also dump garbage in this open space

A few hundred metres from the Gerugambakkam panchayat office, an open plot on Gerugambakkam Main Road offers a cocktail of stagnant water, sewage and garbage.

Sewage is said to be discharged into the plot. As the soil in this plot has been saturated with sewage, it seems to contain some stagnant rainwater.

“There is no underground drainage system in Gerumbakkam and residents rely on individual septic tanks. The locality is however plagued by the problem of sewage being let into open lands. When it comes to stagnant sewage, this vacant plot on Gerugambakkam Main Road takes the cake,” says S. Sukumar, a resident of Gerungambakkam.

The road along this plot is high, and this prevents rainwater from draining into decades-old drains. Residents of Gerugambakkam have been requesting panchayat officials to raise all the open spaces in the locality to the height of their respective roads to ensure easy draining of rainwater.

Lack of funds is cited as the reason for the local body not acting on this suggestion.

“Steps will be taken to fence the open plot,” says a panchayat official.

Gerugambakkam panchayat, which is under the Kundrathur Panchayat Union of Kancheepuram district administration, has a population of around 23,000. On an average, it generates around five tonnes of garbage every day.

Gerungambakkam Panchayat Union does not have a designated dumping ground.