KOCHI: All the seventeen little ones of Chennur Anganwadi, except one, were sleeping in a row on a red quilt with flowers printed on it. They had had rice and green gram curry before the afternoon nap. Sathi C G, helper at the Anganwadi at Chennur in Kadamakkudy, was drawing water from the well on the compound to clean the plates and utensils used to prepare the meal.
A look into the well gives you a shudder: water could give a tough competition to orange squash!
“The water can only be used for washing (utensils),” said Sathi. “We take water from the public tap on the road for cooking and for drinking.”
That makes it all the more complicated. For, the piped drinking water supplied by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to Chennur was salty for the past one month, following a leak in the supply line that runs through the Periyar River!
The Anganwadi has no water purifier. “What else could we do? We used salty water for cooking and boil it for drinking. It would still be salty,” the Anganwadi employee said helplessly.
More than 400 families of Karikkattuthuruthu and Chennur wards had been drinking salty water for the past one month. The water from the wells in the area is not potable because of saline water intrusion and hence they all have to depend on the KWA water supply.
“The water supply line to Chennur crosses the Periyar River from Kothad and a joint in the line rusted and leaked. After complaints, the KWA authorities inspected the underwater line and caried out repair works on Monday,” said Sheeja Jose, Chennur ward member.
But the local people still complain that the drinking water supplied tastes salty and are wary of quick fix solutions. Nobody knows when the underwater pipeline leaked and how long the people in the locality had been drinking polluted water.
The water tastes salty only when the salinity in the river increases after monsoon. Otherwise, they would not have known that they were drinking directly from the Periyar, which is known to be a concoction of organic and chemical pollutants.
“People in the area had complained of salty drinking water supply last year also,” said Sheeja Jose. The underwater pipeline must have started leaking at least a year before and people there began drinking water mixed with pollutants directly from the river bed.
Chennur is not an isolated case. In the absence of a mechanism to check underwater and sub-surface piplelines that carry drinking water, many cases of grave leaks that contaminate the water we drink remain undiscovered and unattended. The fact that the bed of the river and backwaters in Kochi estuarine area are heavily contaminated by heavy metals and chemical pollutants makes the situation even more worse.
A study by Dr G D Martin and others published in ‘Scientific World Journal’ had concluded that the magnitude of trace metal pollution in sediments of the Kochi backwaters has been increasing over the last few decades and was regarded as a product of anthropogenic contamination. Poor sediment flushing conditions, enclosed nature of the area and suitable adsorption of metals in the sedimentary compartments (slit, clay and organic carbon) suggest it as a sensitive ecosystem.
“The leaks in the underwater supply lines are a case of grave concern. Intrusion of heavily contaminated water from river beds can pause serious health hazards,” said Dr Martin.
Water woes of Chennur
Even though the KWA has found a quick fix solution, it will not solve the longstanding issue of water contamination and scarcity in Chennur and surrounding areas in Kadamakkudi panchayat where the ground water salinity is very high. Even if the water supply is restored, in the present situation, the supply is once in two days and duration of pumping is just over three hours. Completion of Muppathadam drinking water project is being viewed by the local people as a long-term solution. One out of three tanks in Kadamakkudi under this project has been completed. The completion of the project is expected to ensure a steady supply, but the sorry state of pipelines would remain. “The safety of drinking water would still be a concern and a sustainable solution could only be achieved by replacing the pipeline network. It is estimated that replacing the pipelines in the panchayat would cost Rs 12 crore,” said Sheeja Jose.
A warning sign
Chennur is a grave warning. There are numerous drinking water supply lines crisscrossing water bodies and canals in Kochi. Nobody knows if there is a leak in the line unless it ends up in a major breakdown. There is no preventive mechanism or a regular check to ascertain whether these water supply networks are safe and leak-proof. The vulnerability of the pipeline network is aggravated as it bears corrosion of over four decades. “Preventive checking and periodic inspection of underwater supply lines are very costly and need special equipment. It would also demand a special team for regular monitoring,” said Mohammed Shahi, Assistant Executive Engineer of KWA. The rectification of the line to Chennur from Kothad itself cost more than Rs 60,000. The KWA has no preventive inspection mechanism in place now. But the official said that it would act at once if there was a breakdown and health hazard.
scientific study comes up with shocking findings
A study by Dr G D Martin and others published in ‘Scientific World Journal’ had concluded that the magnitude of trace metal pollution in sediments of the Kochi backwaters has been increasing.
It is regarded as a product of anthropogenic contamination. Poor sediment flushing conditions, enclosed nature of the area and suitable adsorption of metals in the sedimentary compartments (slit,
clay and organic carbon) suggest it as a sensitive ecosystem. ‘‘Intrusion of heavily contaminated water from river beds can pause serious health hazards,” said Dr Martin.
There is water supply only once in two days. We collect water in big cans and keep it in the sun for hours. But the salinity will remain
- Prakashan, resident of Karikkattuthuruthu