The State Pollution Control Board move to set up a highly sensitive monitoring system - ‘water quality monitoring station’ in the Periyar river is getting delayed following an error in the system imported from a US-based company.
Realising the gravity of pollution in the Periyar, the Board had taken a decision three months ago to set up a monitoring station in the river.
According to PCB chairman K Sajeevan, the implementation of the project will take more than a month.
“The system worth Rs 7 lakh was purchased from ‘Hath’, a USbased company. However, it shows an error while installing. So we sent it back and are awaiting an error-free system. The new system has arrived in Bangalore
and it will be installed in a few months,” Sajeevan said. The system can scientifically analyse the pollution of the
river and display the results simultaneously. All analysers will work round-the-clock and the result will be displayed for public scrutiny. The sensing unit of the monitoring system will be installed mid-river, while the main unit will be set up near IRE Junkar Jetty, Eloor. “The Periyar is polluted owing to the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents. So there should be a monitoring station. The monitoring network will check more than eight parameters for analysing the water purity,” a PCB official said. The PCB is also planning to place a display unit with huge screens at the FACT Junction. The public can check the updated information on water purity.
The public can give their opinion and suggestions according to the data. The Board expects that it will help to avail oneself of accurate information about the pollution and know precisely what the problem is, where does it occur, how serious it is, and what is causing it. The system will work using a sensor that will be placed midriver where there is a heavy flow of water .
Various agencies , after analysing the water samples from the Periyar/ Edayar, have reported that due to the discharge of untreated effluents into the river, there is substantial contamination of water and soil with DDT, BHC and Endosulfan. This has prompted the PCB to install the system, the official said. The proposed continuous (online) ambient air quality monitoring station in the Eloor industrial area is also getting delayed indefinitely.
It will come up near the ESI Hospital at Eloor. The unit will display the sulphur dioxide, suspended particulate matter, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide levels. The data generated by the stations will be available on the website of the Central Pollution Control Board.