chennai an irrigation canal branching off from the chembarambakkam reservoir is now encroached upon and has turned into a sewage channel complain residents of sekkizhar nagar in kundrathurs muruguraj one of the oldest residents in the area said the channel had been carrying water for farming when he bought land in the 1980s but soon disappeared as urbanisation began with a couple of houses being built on the water body itselfwith farmlands turning into real estate plots the canal became the first victim as did a 6ftwide road running on either side of it he saidthe canal which was 3km long was blocked by residents of neighbouring kollicherry when it became a carrier of sewage that soon began stagnating and affected the groundwater table he saida few years ago the residents requested the panchayat to convert the channel into an underground sewage drain but the proposal was not be taken up due to political reasons he said during the monsoon he added rain water mixed with sewage overflowed onto the roads and posed a major health hazard but there has been no response neither from the civic authorities nor from the pwd he saida senior pwd official said encroachment of irrigation canals was not confined to those attached to the chembarambakkam reservoir the revenue authorities had to be blamed as they had regularised the encroachments by issuing pattas every reservoir had at least four such irrigation canals which are now encroached he saidthese irrigation canals are naturally formed streams and encroaching upon them will result in flooding during the monsoon in some areas the corporation or local panchayat had laid roads on them blocking the flow of water such illegalities had to rectified and the canals revived to help avoid flooding he added