Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Ombudsman asks TDB to get river cleaned

Thiruvananthapuram: Ombudsman for Local Self-government institutions M.R. Hariharan Nair has directed the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to take immediate steps to clean up the polluted stretch of the Karamana river near the Parasurama temple at Thiruvallam.

In an order issued on the basis of a petition filed by M. Easwari Amma against the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation the Ombudsman asked the TDB to ensure the removal of material left behind by devotees after offering ‘bali’ at the bathing ghat.

Earlier, acting on a notice, the temple authorities engaged a worker to clean up the wastes in the water. The petition pointed out that despite the effort, pollution continued to a substantial extent. The Ombudsman had also asked the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to look into the matter. The board reported that there was no sufficient flow of water in the area. The report said the dumping of plantain leaves and earthen pots had led to stagnation of the river water.

Based on the recommendations of the KSPCB, the Ombudsman decided to make the Irrigation Department Executive Engineer a respondent in the case.

The TDB was directed to put up a net around the area where food particles and plantain leaves are dumped by devotees after obsequies. The leaves retrieved by temple employees from this area should be transferred to a bin and disposed of elsewhere the same day. The remains of urns should also be retrieved immediately and disposed of elsewhere, the order stated. The case has been posted to October 3 to assess the progress.

The heavy pollution of the downstream stretches of the Karamana river has led to concern among the people inhabiting the Edayar island and the mainland at Thiruvallam. Thousands of devotees visiting the temple are exposed to the unsanitary conditions.

Local people have joined hands with political parties and other organisations to highlight the environmental and health problems caused by the dark, foul water and the dense growth of water hyacinth. They believe that the pollution of the river could be minimised by dredging the waters on the western side of the Edayar island to facilitate tidal flushing.

The Karamana river, flowing through the city, joins the Killi river at Pallathukadavu (upstream of Thiruvallam) and wraps around the Edayar island on its way to the Poonthura estuary. Both the rivers carry large quantities of raw sewage discharged from city drains.

The heavily polluted Parvathy Puthanar canal joins the river at Munnattumukku, near the Poonthura coastal village.

The flow of water on the western side of the island is blocked due to heavy silting at Munnattumukku and accretion of sea sand at Kunnumanal. During high tide, seawater from the estuary surges up to Thiruvallam through the eastern side of Edayar. When the tide ebbs, the dirty water from the Parvathy Puthanar rushes in, covering the upstream portions up to Thiruvallam and beyond.

Scientists feel that sand-mining from the upstream portions has aggravated the pollution of the river by depriving the river of its natural filtering mechanism.

They believe that the pollution of the canal can be tackled only by addressing the sewage contamination in the upstream areas.

In 1997, the Legislative Committee on Environment had reported that the pollution caused by the release of raw sewage into the Killi river near Jagathy bridge was at an ‘explosive’ level.

In March this year, the KSPCB had issued a notice to the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and the Minor Irrigation Department calling for immediate steps to check the pollution of the Karamana river at Thiruvallam.

An analysis of water samples collected from the river revealed a high level of contamination from the sewage treatment plant at Muttathara. The notice called for urgent steps to provide primary, secondary and tertiary treatment facilities.

In April this year, Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran had announced that a weir would be constructed across the Parvathy Puthanar at Munnattumukku to prevent pollutants in the canal from seeping into the Karamana river and contaminating the water in the ‘bali kadavu’ of the Parasurama temple at Thiruvallam.

He promised that work on the weir would commence within a month, but the project is yet to take off.

The State government had initiated moves to construct a seawall at Cheriyamuttom to prevent recurrence of a sand block.

Two groins at Panathurakara to the south of Poonthura sand bar had also been planned to keep the river mouth open.

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