KOZHIKODE: Two rivers, Chaliyar and Iruvazhinji, developed blue-green algae last month pressing panic buttons for residents as they were providing drinking water to all the gram panchayats and municipalities around. Areekode gram panchayat in Malappuram soon conducted a ‘Clean Chaliyar’ drive with close to 1000 people joining hands. It slapped notices on 30 shops discharging waste into the river. Further, Malappuram district collector asked all panchayat secretaries to legally book the waste dumpers and forward the same to him to initiate police action. But efforts for cleaning and curbing waste dump at Iruvazhinji, which is the tributary of Chaliyar has not begun in Kozhikode yet.
Blue-green algae were found at Vaishyam Purayi, Kakkad (Karasserry GP), Attupuram, Kacheri (Mukkam municipality) and Kottammal (Kodiyathur GP) in the river indicating the gravity of pollution. Dead fish were spotted at Vaishyam Purayi. Though a couple of showers had checked its spread, concerns are unattended. Four drinking water projects of Kerala Water Authority (KWA) draw water from the river. “The river should be protected by all means. Bamboo fence and selected plants should be grown on the banks to filter harmful content and promote organic check dams in place of concrete,” points Mavoor health inspector P. Unnikrishnan.
He demands a river survey on Iruvazhinji. KWA assistant executive engineer Roy George says they had got expert advice from CWRDM to use treated water.
“But the presence of the algae reflects the contamination of the river and LSGs should take steps to stop pollution,” he said. Kozhikode collector convened a review meeting last week, consisting of officials of revenue, pollution control board, groundwater and CWRDM. “Each department had collected separate samples for testing, and we are waiting for the result. After that, once again a meeting would be held to address the issue,” said deputy tahsildar (disaster management) P.P. Krishnan Kutty. The high content of nitrogen and phosphorous causes the formation of blue-green algae where the water turns deep green, and septic waste and fertilisers are rich in these two elements.
