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The recent unprecedented, torrential rain had left Chennai city inundated and full of flood ravages. Vijayalakshmi Sridhar talks to three of the NGOs that have been involved in the massive mass cleanups and awareness drives to set the city back on its restorative course and to promote climate recilient, long term green growth.
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AS MUCH as the devastating floods itself, the post-floods relief efforts in Chennai, particularly those organized by the NGOs and volunteers got talked about widely. More reassuring is the fact that each of these NGOs and volunteers have been a part of active thought and action groups that have been involved in long-term clean and green initiatives of their own.
Preeti Aghalayam, Professor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai had been instrumental in putting together a few eco-activist groups and volunteerdriven cleanups in the city. She tells us how the crisis had brought like-minded individuals and groups together. The Swacch Kotturpuram Campaign, a neighborhood group which, Aghalayam had been instrumental in founding a year ago put a stop to the growing pile of garbage in the street corner, had grown into a residents’ association. Slowly, source segregation and recycling had been instilled in the residents’