Thiruvananthapuram: With the reservoir of Aruvikkara dam, the main source of water to most parts of Thiruvananthapuram city in a complete bad shape because of massive silt deposit and growth of weeds, a gigantic effort is needed to clean up the entire area and increase the capacity for providing safe and clean drinking water.
Arruvikkara dam supplies 300 million MLD water (million litres per day ) through PTP Nagar, Observatory , Peroorkada and Manvila zones to the consumers in the city. The KWA authorities attribute the contamination of water to the dumping of waste including large amounts of plastic into the drains and thodus which finally end up in the reservoir especially after heavy spell of rains.
The population of Aruvikkara, Vellanad and Aryanad panchayts had grown manifold and so has waste generation. While KWA officials claim that the water is treated effectively at their treatment plants and also checked on an hourly basis in their laboratories, the tests carried out recently had indicated that all is not well with the water supplied to city.
The level of faecal coli form bacteria has been found higher than the permissible limits. Similarly the presence of iron, magnesium is on the higher side.
The muddiness in water which is known as turbidity, is also higher reflecting the poor treatment at the plants. While the normal standards for turbidity in drinking water is 1 Nelphelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU), at many places it has been found to be much above the prescribed levels. Water resources minister P. J. Joseph has assured in Assembly that desilting would be carried out to increase the capacity of the dam. But experts say it is a gigantic task.
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