Chennai’s monsoon test

Call it the continuum or an early image-building exercise, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who also holds the Municipal Administration portfolio, has already deployed Ministers and senior officials to take up flood-mitigation works well ahead of the onset of the Northeast monsoon. He has instructed that all de-silting and stormwater drain (SWD) works be completed as early as possible.

Official data shows that the flood-vulnerable locations within the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) have dropped from nearly 800 in 2015 to 389 in 2023. The figure is 219 for the 2026 Northeast monsoon. The list of vulnerable locations is being continuously reviewed based on field-level assessments, rainfall patterns, and the effectiveness of the completed flood-mitigation works, said GCC officials. The micro-level SWD works are 95% complete, but there are severe capacity constraints along the Buckingham Canal, Adyar, and Sholinganallur, officials added.

GCC Commissioner G.S Sameeran said the civic body is coordinating with the Railways, Chennai Metro Rail Limited, and other agencies on drainage and flood-mitigation works. “Some major infrastructure works may take longer. The GCC has implemented temporary solutions, such as pumping facilities, for managing the monsoon,” he said.

Work to remove silt, mud, and garbage using machinery was undertaken by the GCC in the Buckingham Canal located in the Palavakkam Little Canal area under the Perungudi Zone | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Lack of consultation

Mr. Sameeran and his team have been on routine inspections – almost daily – of various works across the city. Even so, there has been talk about a lack of consultation and transparency in the conduct of flood-mitigation works. MDMK councillor S. Jeevan of Ward 35 in Perambur said, “Elected representatives do not know what is happening during flood preparedness inspections. I have not been able to meet the assistant engineer for 10 days to discuss residents’ complaints. The flood risk is high this year due to delays in desilting canals such as the Kodungaiyur Canal.”

Federation of North Chennai Residents Welfare Association president T. Shanmugam said residents were worried as officials had not shared details of flood preparedness yet. Haris Sulthan, an activist in Padi, said most waterbodies in and around Chennai and its suburbs remained largely dry, with the five drinking water reservoirs together holding 4.5 TMC against the 11.7 TMC total capacity.

He said routine annual works were being carried out, but no new major flood-mitigation interventions had been undertaken beyond these works in many areas, including Medavakkam, Chitlapakkam, Hasthinapuram, Kadaperi, Ambedkar Road, Jothi Nagar, and Sunnambu Kolathur, where prolonged inundation was reported previously. He appreciated the cancellation/reversal of tenders of “cosmetical lake-front development” works by the newly elected TVK government, while also calling for further desilting, the removal of water hyacinth, and increasing the lake depth.

Urbanisation challenge

According to a senior official in the GCC, Chennai’s monsoon vulnerability, particularly in the south of the city, is largely due to unchecked urbanisation, and that flooding in many parts like near Perumbakkam is “100% man-made”. Pointing to the built-up spaces and encroachments around the Pallikaranai marshland, Perungudi, and the IT corridor, he said that natural watercourses are choked, and canals in T. Nagar and Mambalam are heavily polluted because the “entire waterway is a sewer due to illegal sewage connections.”