THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even after repeated efforts by the corporation and other stakeholders, including Haritha Keralam Mission, to revive the filthy Parvathy Puthanar canal by cleaning it up for the past one year, waste dumping in the canal is back to square one. Residents living near the canal have complained that dumping of poultry waste, septage and the accumulation of weeds are destroying the canal again.
The cleaning work of the canal has also come to a halt due to the unavailability of resources. However, sources said the state government will convene a meeting this week to revive the cleaning work. The meeting will be led by Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran.
Though the corporation had earlier appointed special health squads to nab offenders, a huge amount of abattoir and household waste is still being dumped in the canal daily.
When the cleaning was in progress, the scavengers had to remove 2,000 tonnes of waste as part of making the channel navigable.
“The wasting dumping has become a common phenomenon now and no authorities have visited here to check the progress of the canal clean-up for the past four months. Now, the residents are at the receiving end as we need to suffer the after-effects of garbage accumulation in the canal. The government grants lakhs of money for the cleaning up of the canal in every budget. But it is a wastage of money. Normally, waste dumping takes place during the night. So the corporation should set up special squads to check these offenders and we will raise this issue in the meeting to be taken place this week,” said Saifudeen Haji, a resident and chairman of Vallakadavu-Vayyamoola action council.
Kerala Waterways and Infrastructures Ltd (KWIL), an SPV formed by the state government and Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), was entrusted with the canal development for Rs 150 crore.
As per the proposal, the 18.5-km Kovalam-Akkulam Lake stretch is being developed in the first phase and made navigable with minimum land acquisition.
Meanwhile, Mayor K Sreekumar said that the corporation will take part in the revival of the cleaning up of the canal and it informed Kadakampally Surendran to direct KWIL to restart the cleaning as soon as possible.
“Efforts are on to resume the cleaning work of the canal. The corporation has already informed the minister to intervene in the issue by directing the company to restart the work. There will be no delay and will take steps to prevent waste dumping into the canal too, he said.