The Buckingham Canal is a manmade, saltwater, navigation canal that runs parallel to the Coromandel Coast in the north-south direction. It was built in phases from 1800 till 1882 and measures approximately 800 km in length from Vijayawada to Marakkanam. Within the Chennai metropolitan area, the canal connects the three rivers— Kosasthalaiyar, Cooum, and Adyar —that cut across Chennai. Though primarily constructed to transport goods from Vijayawada to Madras, the canal also helps manage floodwaters. Archival photographs show the canal to be an idyllic setting with lush green edges and wooden catamarans cruising its course. Today, however, the canal is faced with severe pollution woes with untreated sewage and solid waste finding their way into its waters. The numerous encroachments too have severely compromised its width and carrying capacity over long stretches within the Chennai Metropolitan area. Over the years, various governmental agencies have struggled to revive the canal but continue to do so even to this date.

EYES ON THE CANAL is an exercise in participatory planning to make the canal a livable place for the residents of Chennai. The initiative involves various activities such as awareness walks, community mapping exercises, stakeholder engagement meetings and an open-ideas competition to generate interest and ownership towards the canal, which has suffered from collective abandonment.

Eyes on the Canal- Participatory approaches to reimagine Chennai’s Buckingham Canal- Volume 1

Eyes on the Canal- Participatory approaches to reimagine Chennai’s Buckingham Canal- Volume 2

Rapid Assessment Report On Solid Waste Issues – March 2019

Project team: Vidhya Mohankumar, Abinaya Rajavelu, Srivardhan Rajalingam, Nirupama Jayaraman, Bezylal Praysingh R, Priyadharshini N, Selvaganesh S, Devangi Ramakrishnan, Shourya Dubey, Khushali Haji, Gokul Krishna J, Ksheeraja Padmanaban, Sarveswaran Ganapathy, Manasa Ramanathan, Aishwarya Murari, Gokulakrishna Ilavarasu, Gowtham Balaje, Hari Vardhan, Kawin Kumaran, Naushad K, Naveena Munuswamy, Vigneshwara Raj, Uma Bharathi, Keerthana, Karthick
Funding Organisation: GIZ India with cooperation from Greater Chennai Corporation