KOZHIKODE: The city administration is struggling to complete the pre-monsoon cleaning activities and precautionary measures, though the first spell of monsoon has already hit the region. Hectic activities are on to clean the sewage joints and manholes to avoid water-logging in key city spots. However, health activists allege that most of the preparatory cleaning works are yet to be carried out. The recurring summer showers had already worsened the situation after which came the first spell of monsoon showers putting the sanitation activities in limbo.
Waste dumped in an abandoned land near Coronation Theatre awaiting the cleaners.
The faulty drainage system of the city is still the same though the public have been raising a hue and cry for decades about the water logging at 'New Bus Stand' junction, Palayam and Puthiyara-Stadium junction where water-level rose with the first rains. Laila Vinod, a student of Farook College told DC that the Kozhikode Beach is still a waste dumping spot. The poor state of broken drainages and gutters is also frightening us, she said. However the municipal corporation authorities denied all allegations saying that all steps are on to clean the city.
Corporation standing committee chairperson KV Baburaj told DC that serious steps are on to clear the waste dumped at various spots across the city. The drainage cleaning works are still on though a bit slow pace, he added. The two major canals Canolly Canal and BK Canal connecting Beypore and Kallayi continue to be major waste dumping points at most of the stretches which if cleaned could drain out the entire water in the city avoiding water-logging, it was pointed out.
Noted businessman CE Chakkunni told DC that the Corporation should be more alert in cleaning the canals and penalising those who dump waste into drainages. "Mere construction is not enough but maintenance also is equally important", he said, adding that many shop owners in the ground floor at several spots are a worried lot fearing water flowing into the shops located in low-lying zones.
