KOCHI: An outsider won’t stay here for ten minutes, fighting the irritation and making frantic efforts to avoid vomiting.
The residents of Kambivelikkakom, near Chullikkal, ask the same questions. “You can’t stand here right? You won’t eat from our house? Then tell us how would we survive in this place.’’
In the most shameful example of negligence by the authorities, around 40 families here live virtually in hell. Reason: Rameswaram Canal, open, filled with dirt and waste, hardly flowing, is just metres in front of their houses.
The foul smell lingering in the area is just the peripheral impact of the issue, whereas the grave ones are so many. Life takes the worst form during the rainy season as the canal overflows and water reaches the homes nearby. “It carries all the dirt with it. In some houses, the septic tank is on the front side and the dirt in it is also washed into the houses,” said Sushama, a resident.
“We have to carry our children, even seven or eight years old, to the main road some 200 or 300 metres away to send them to school without getting their dress wet. The time they are back we are ready with hot water and Dettol to bathe them. Both children and elderly people are affected by severe allergy problems, apart from diarrhoea during monsoon, and the only solution the doctors suggest is to leave the place,” said Suma.
“Mosquitoes arrive in large numbers, except for two hours in the afternoon, making it difficult even to open our mouths to eat. Relatives won’t come to visit us, they won’t stay with us and outsiders won’t eat from our houses,” said Praseeda.
There is only a small road to the area, a concreted one just enough for a two-wheeler ride. “It is difficult to carry a sick person to the road especially during the rainy season. When it is raining, we would place small branches of trees to distinguish the road from the canal,” said Rajesh. The bread-winners in the houses are daily wage workers and it is impossible for them to move to another place. “If we want to sell the land we should have to opt for a free sale as none is offering a price,” say Vincy and Elcy.
The present state of the canal, extending 6.5 km from Calvathy in Fort Kochi to Karuvelipady in Thoppumpady, affects the people in Kambivelikkakom the worst as their houses face the water body, whereas, in other areas, the canal is on the back side or not so near the murky water. The people living near the canal at Achalath Road, Pandikkudi, and nearby places are also affected with diseases caused by the dirt in the open canal and flooding of adjacent paths during rain. “We had to remove mud to shift a cancer patient to hospital recently,” said Karthikeyan of Achalath Road. According to the residents, it has been years since the canal was cleaned by the authorities. The local people collected money and cleaned the canal a few months ago. But the dirt is again mounting, making the water flow impossible.
Complaints galore; but little response
Complaints were submitted to the MLA, former Mayor, Irrigation Department, present Mayor and Standing Committee chairman, Health, over the state of the Rameswaram Canal. “The Standing Committee chairman was the only one who agreed to visit the place. The former councillor never came here and the MLA visited us during the recently-held LSG polls after a long time. We then gathered around the MLA and he promised to address the issue,” said the residents of Kambivelikkakom. “Issues like this come under the purview of the City Corporation. Anyway, the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission will be implemented soon and we will take up the issue along with it,” said Dominic Presentation MLA. “The councillors in the areas near the canal had brought the issue to the attention of the Mayor and she agreed to take quick action. We are determined to be with the people and conduct awareness among the public not to dump waste into the canal,” said councillor of eighth division Jayanthi Premnath. Society for Social Justice had filed a complaint over the state of the canal with the State Human Rights Commission, which sent notices to those concerned to appear before it in the next sitting on February 22.
A slithery problem
Snakes that arrive with the water when the canal overflows is another nightmare faced by the local people, who say that there is no house at Kambivelikkakom where snakes haven’t entered. Even when it is not raining, snakes intrude into the houses from nearby compounds and trees growing on the retaining walls of the canal provide an easy path for them. Most of the snakes are highly venomous. In the complaint filed with the State Human Rights Commission, the snake problem was also mentioned, with the request to cut the trees.
Main demands of residents