Going by the number of rats lolling around at EK Guru Street in Periamet, one would want the Chief Mouser from 10 Downing out here. People of this residential area located near the Periamet mosque and Madras Veterinary Hospital are plagued by a number of issues, all of them inter-related.
It all started around a year ago when the cement road was dug up for an infrastructure work, which resulted in damage to some of the pipelines. The drainage line and stormwater drain network having suffered damage most houses get water mixed with sewage.
The section of the road that needs to be relaid
The road has not been relaid, and the gaps in the manhole cover are an invitation to a colony of rats. The rodents move freely on the road through the day, the situation worsening at night.
M. Shoukat Ali, a resident of the area for over two decades, says his family does not draw water from the borewell fearing contamination and are dependent on tanker lorries. “So high is the rat infestation that we cannot open our door; if we do, they just sneak in. My air conditioner and washing machine wires were damaged by these rodents,” says Shoukat.
