They remove bottles, medical waste and garbage from waterbodies in Nandivaram village

Youngsters of Nandivaram village in Kancheepuram district have started cleaning up ponds in their area.

Once the source of drinking water needs of the people, the ‘periya kulam’ and ‘chinna kulam’ have now become garbage dumpyards. “Being one of the main drinking water sources for years, the ‘periya kulam’ needed a revamp and we have decided to bring back the water storage area of the tank,” said V. Arun, one of the coordinators of the programmes.

“Similarly, we have cleaned up Eswaran Koil Thangal, an 11.75 acre waterbody, where we have removed tonnes of bottles and plastic covers. There was three-foot-deep slush which covered these unwanted materials and our men had to struggle to remove them from the waterbody,” he said. Several ‘Karuvelam’ trees were removed from the waterbody, he added. His group ‘Namba Nandivaram Samooga Podhu Pani Kuzhu’ has more volunteers for carrying out these works on a weekly basis.

The youngsters of Nandivaram have decided to clean the smaller waterbodies during weekends and they started their work on a Sunday. They removed bottles, medical waste, including syringes, lotus stems, thermocol (polystyrene), and other garbage from the water bodies. Several residents expressed solidarity with the cause and Nandivaram-Guduvancheri town panchayat officials offered to clear the debris.

M. Selvanayagam, one of the residents, said his forefathers used to drink water from the 3.5 acre ‘periya kulam’ till the 1990s.

“We cleaned the Thangal for four hours on Sunday and another set of friends cleaned it hours later. We want government support to divert sewage and set up garbage bins,” he said.