Between the land and the sea - Notes from #ChennaiRains 9


Time to Recover Chennai's Lakes/Ponds/Streams.
EFI is initiating a document with photographs and proofs of encroachment into waterways, which will be submitted to the Govt of TamilNadu. We want all of you to participate, kindly help us by clicking photographs of encroaching Structure/Establishment or any form of obstruction and email it to info@indiaenvironment.org.
1. If you know of a lake/pond/stream in Chennai where there is an obstruction, kindly click photographs of the same.
2. Email it to us at info@indiaenvironment.org with name of location.
3. The Encroachment Could range from: Building, Parking of heavy vehicles, Bill Boards, Garbage, Construction Debris etc...
What will EFI Do?
1. Garbage, construction debris etc can be removed through voluntary efforts with govt permission. Vehicular obstruction can also be eliminated through appropriate dialogue with concerned drivers.
2. If they are larger structures and are a definite encroachment a report shall be presented to the Govt for action.
Let's work together positively in rebuilding Chennai, let's start with recovering our waterways.
-Jai Hind-

2. For all Chennai friends. Please do take part, or be in touch with this activity.
Let us realise that we need not wait for Assembly elections every time to hope for the better. Nearer to us than state assemblies are the civic institutions, who may give the impression of working, but are really capable of achieving far better social and civic objectives if citizens of each ward become more proactive and watchful. 
Let us break the corporator-contractor nexus, and claim the civic agencies, please!
Nityanand Jayaraman
SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY: Beyond Relief & Rehabilitation to Reclaiming Chennai, Our Lives and Democracy
WHEN: 13 December, 2015. 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
WHERE: SPACES, No. 1 Elliots Beach Road, Besant Nagar, Chennai 600 090
KEY SPEAKERS: No VIPs, No Eminent Speakers. Nobody over 35.
(Participants of ALL AGES welcome -- ENTRY FREE)
A JUSTICE TALKS INITIATIVE
"The Chennai rains were sort of a 'truth ink' that wiped clean (and exposed) all the farces of the urban establishment," wrote a youngster Samudra Gupta on his facebook. That is true. The urban establishment stands exposed. But so does the fact that we, the people, are not in control of the Government. Our democracy has been captured by vested interests. From aesthetics to functionality, our cities are planned to please corporate investors, real estate sharks, and vile contractors, not residents or the vast majority of urban poor who make this city a home for themselves and others. What also stands exposed is that in the tension between environment and development, the environment will do no balancing.
As people, our anger at the failure of the "system" is justified. The youth who have been dismissed as "useless" and without a sense of social responsibility or purpose are the ones that pulled (are pulling) the city out of filth and floodwaters. Surely, as people who ably faced the daunting task of rescue, relief and rehabilitation in the face of a useless and anti-social establishment, these countless volunteers, back-office geeks, valiant rescuers and coordinators of youth-run portals -- like TheNewsMinute & Thelogicalindian -- can take on the far more formidable task of handling the disaster that our democracy has become.
How can we reclaim our government? How can we re-fashion our economy to ensure that we function within the limits set by nature? How do we redesign our society so that regardless of whether or not there is prosperity, we can ensure that there is no poverty?
These questions are too important to leave in the hands of those who have brought us to this pass.
Please spread the word, and join this brainstorm session to ensure that the opportunity presented by the disaster is not wasted.
For more information, contact: Archanaa Seker -- 9840523235  
3. My Chennai added 10 new photos.
True that!
Creatives credit: IN1947


Peter Van Geit· 
‪#‎ChennaiRains‬ ‪#‎FloodRelief‬ Chennai Trekking Club Launches TN Flood Relief Map: relief.chennaitrekkers.org
Our volunteers made tremendous progress mapping the relief status in the city - 45% of target areas have been surveyed! So far we identified 40 areas identified where no relief has reached yet. Our CTC Relief Center has dispatched materials to 7 areas. Many others are in progress. Please direct any relief materials to our center (contacts: Prasanna: 9994816896, Manoj 9597119618). We ensure it reaches the most needy. We need volunteers to help us scout 72 remaining areas mostly in the city outskirts.
Any volunteer doing survey / NGO doing relief can update the map directly:
Blue marker: area needs survey => require volunteers to scout => update survey results on map.
Red marker: survey done / needs relief => Relief NGO contact volunteer => dispatch relief materials => email info@chennaitrekkers.org to clear this area
Green marker: survey done / relief complete => no further action required
Any other area that requires relief can be added directly to map.
Peter
Please share with your friends/NGOs.
Chennai clean up - an important event
There is a very much important event happening on Sunday hosted by @restore and Organic farmer's market at Tre farms, Chetpet. Rekha RamuParthasarathy VMGopi DevarajanRadhika Rammohan,Sangeetha Sriram are the organisers behind the event.
This is a workshop to let everyone know why handing over bleaching powder and stuff like dettol(which I too have been guilty of collecting in the Chennai relief work) is not the greatest way to clean.
They are going to be talking about using AEM or activated effective micro organisms is a super, natural alternative to the above.
Srinivas Krishnaswamy and I plan to trek it from Siruseri on Sunday to join in and learn more.
We also plan to carry some more stuff you can clean your homes with which are natural, do not pollute and do a great job too.
So if you are around these parts on Sunday or even if you aren't, do land up. I hear several thousand litres of diluted AEM would be available gratis courtesy the manufacturers.
So come with empty bottles, fresh notebooks and pens and an open mind.
Human civilization and its need to clean has been around for a zillion years. Synthetic soap and other cleaning supplies for barely 160 years.
You do the math. (Of course we were all cleaning. Only with better stuff).

6.  Aarti Madhusudan.

Angels, all of them. In our area they are from Madurai. Grateful to these wonderful people who are cleaning our city for us.
Aarti Madhusudan added 2 new photos.
12 hrs
The city has been ravaged - there is muck and garbage everywhere - conservancy workers alone can't manage - the corporation has gotten people from other cities to come in to help - here is a bunch of folks from trichy - I saw teams from Cbe and Madurai too - if you bump into them do acknowledge and just say "thanks Anna" ad see them beam 

smile emoticon

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