THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It seems, good days are ahead for Neyyar river. A recently-formed conservation committee for the river has chalked out different plans to restore the river to its past glory. The 56-km-long river originating in Agasthyarkoodam hills passes through five Assembly constituencies before emptying out into the Arabian Sea at Poovar. The river faces different challenges ranging from poor quality of water to indiscriminate sand mining.
Neyyattinkara MLA K Ansalan, chairman of the committee, said the first step would be preparation of a scientific conservation plan. “Unlike some other rivers, industrial pollution isn’t the villain here. Sewage and domestic waste dumping in the river is resulting in huge organic load,” he said.
Rampant sand mining has caused irreparable damage to the river bed, Ansalan said. “At several places, the river bed is dotted with huge pits. Though sand mining has been now effectively stopped, it would take years to recover from the damage,” he says.
Awareness programmes form the core of the committee’s conservation plan. “There is no other way out. Several streams and canals that empty out into the river have high content of human waste. Most of the people are unaware that their carelessness is causing the death of a river,” Ansalan says. The committee plans to rope in the support of local bodies, educational institutions and NGOs to conduct massive awareness programmes in areas through which the river flows.
Another plan is to form ward-level conservation committees chaired by the local panchayat member or councillor as the case may be. The river flows through 28 wards in Neyyattinkara constituency, 11 in Parassala, six in Kattakkada, two in Aruvikkara and four in Kovalam.
Rampant encroachments have destroyed the natural sand walls on the river bank in many areas. To prevent soil erosion, the committee has decided to grow bamboo and vetiver on the banks.