THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though massive quantity of sewage from households still land up in Parvathi Puthanar, the amount of solid waste in the river has marginally reduced after the first phase of the three-month clean up drive that ended on Tuesday.
The discharge of a high volume of treated water from Muttathara sewage farm has boosted the flow in the river making a marked reduction in pollution as it joins Karamana river at Thiruvallam.
“The water hyacinth and algae dredged out were given as fertilizers for farms. Around 400 truckloads of waste was used at a landfill at Enchakkal bus terminal. As per collector’s order, the sludge was used to fill land on NH bypass stretch,” said a senior official attached to inland navigation section of the irrigation department.
Meanwhile, the high tides in the sea at Poonthura have resulted in sand being dumped into the mouth of the river that runs parallel to it.
“Around 20 days ago the sea had strayed into the river and a lot of sand entered it. This had undone the dredging work at Edayar stretch earlier. With the sea closing in on the river at a fast rate, annual dredging will have to be done at river mouth henceforth,” the official said.
The Vallakadavu-Puthanpalam stretch of the river was the most difficult part of the clean up as it had to be desilted three times as piles of plastic used to surface from the river after each clean up. Around Rs 1 crore was spent on the clean up that started on May 20.
