Chennai as a city is blessed with three rivers, marshland and several lakes and ponds. Everything in the city went per nature’s plan until when man decided to let off sewage and dump garbage into these fresh water bodies.

Today the city’s freshwater bodies are open sewer drains and dumpyard with absolutely no respite in the offing. The Perumbakkam marsh is one of the victims of urban encroachment and abuse, the marsh is being used for every other reason but for what a marsh should actually be used for. Illegal construction, release of large quantums of untreated sewage, dumping of construction debris-domestic waste and industrial waste and ofcourse, illegal sand mining.

The Perumbakkam marsh with its surrounding sister lakes is in the cross roads and is crying for attention. If something is not done now, then they would exist only in photographs and will have a catastrophic impact on the people in the neighborhood in the years to come.

The problems related to the marsh are the same, everybody knows that what everybody else is doing is wrong, but nobody wants to stop, but somebody has to stop.

Here are the volunteers from the community around the lake and marsh who have joined EFI’s effort in getting the Marsh and the lakes cleaned and restored.

Several dependant life forms thrive on these waterbodies and its time we thought about them too.

Register: http://www.efivolunteer.com, http://www.indiaenvironment.org