River under threat as filth flows in

Radhakrishnan Kuttoor
PATHANAMTHITTA,  
The Hindu, June 9, 2014 

With the onset of the monsoon, a pollution bomb has started ticking away in Mallappally town.

An incinerator installed by the grama panchayat 11 years ago on the banks of the Manimala river, in the heart of the town, had been posing a threat to the river system. The machine had been sitting more or less idle due to technical problems for the past four years. Its rusted smoke-pipe collapsed a few months ago. The panchayat continued to dump waste in the vicinity of the defunct incinerator, making the place a massive garbage yard.

The free flow of filth into the river and the immediate vicinity of a well of a local drinking water supply scheme continued unabated.

Carcinogenic gas

There was the threat of carcinogenic gases as the local body burnt the waste which included huge quantities of plastic, V.N. Gopinatha Pillai, Kerala River Protection Council vice-president, said.

Pollution

Mr. Pillai, a campaigner two decades, said the solid waste heaps were a breeding ground for rodents and flies. People living nearby were at the receiving end as the water and air were polluted. The authorities had been turning a deaf ear to the people’s plea to address the problem, he said.

The garbage had been polluting the Valiyathode stream which flowed into the river. He called upon the panchayat authorities to shift the waste disposal plant to a safer place and to abandon the idea of setting up a plant near the market in the town.

The authorities should set up a sewage treatment plant that could generate biogas as well as bio-fertilizer. The panchayat should also set up a plastic recycling plant, he said.