The Cooum has changed a lot in the years since V.H. Shipley’s book of 19 poems on the city, ‘Madrassi Madrigals’ was published in 1928. The book, only two copies of which are known to be in existence, has charming verses on Madras' landmarks such as the boat club, the Guindy race course, Elliot's Beach, Museum Theatre, and activities of the British like hunting, golf and sailing.
He describes the Cooum River in one of the poems as follows, ‘Of dirt and smell your sources wake... And near the sea where one would think your water might be cleaner, It forms a cesspit by the bridge, Adjoining the Marina. Oh viscid stream! Oh smelling flood. Oh green and beastly river!’
At present time the very mention of the name Cooum conjures up images of a degraded river, stinking and highly polluted. “For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever,” wrote Alfred Lord Tennyson in The Brook in the 1800s. Two …show more content…
Encroachments along its banks are common in several localities such as Kesavaram, Narasingapuram and Sivapuram. Illegal sand mining is also rampant. The Cooum tank near Perambakkam itself has lost much of its water retention capacity due to excessive removal of soil from the water body.
The study of the river shows that it is 80 percent more polluted than treated sewer. Fish were able to survive in the water for only 3 to 5 hours even after samples were diluted. There are traces of heavy metals like copper and pesticides like endosulphan and lindane in it.
Public Works Department sources said government agencies like Chennai Corporation and business units and retail outlets on the banks of the river were responsible for the pollution. The water has almost no dissolved oxygen, and instead there are traces of heavy metals like copper, besides sewage and sludge. Due to its narrowness and about 3,500 illegal hutments along its banks, it has not been recently desilted, which has closed it to river
He describes the Cooum River in one of the poems as follows, ‘Of dirt and smell your sources wake... And near the sea where one would think your water might be cleaner, It forms a cesspit by the bridge, Adjoining the Marina. Oh viscid stream! Oh smelling flood. Oh green and beastly river!’
At present time the very mention of the name Cooum conjures up images of a degraded river, stinking and highly polluted. “For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever,” wrote Alfred Lord Tennyson in The Brook in the 1800s. Two …show more content…
Encroachments along its banks are common in several localities such as Kesavaram, Narasingapuram and Sivapuram. Illegal sand mining is also rampant. The Cooum tank near Perambakkam itself has lost much of its water retention capacity due to excessive removal of soil from the water body.
The study of the river shows that it is 80 percent more polluted than treated sewer. Fish were able to survive in the water for only 3 to 5 hours even after samples were diluted. There are traces of heavy metals like copper and pesticides like endosulphan and lindane in it.
Public Works Department sources said government agencies like Chennai Corporation and business units and retail outlets on the banks of the river were responsible for the pollution. The water has almost no dissolved oxygen, and instead there are traces of heavy metals like copper, besides sewage and sludge. Due to its narrowness and about 3,500 illegal hutments along its banks, it has not been recently desilted, which has closed it to river