Thiruvananthapuram: With huge amounts of sewage and solid waste getting dumped in Aakkulam Lake after the heavy rains in August, the area has almost turned into a garbage dump.
Experts say the high level of eutrophication in the lake is mainly due to the sewage waste that is coming from the different parts of city and surrounding areas. “There is no proper waste disposal mechanism in the by lanes of the lake and and there is no consistent flow in the lake. Moreover the flow is often obstructed by the heavy construction in the adjoining areas,” said N.N. Panicker of Thettiyar Sahjivan Swaraj.
He said most of the construction activities in the area do not even have the mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Airport Authority. “We have appealed to the government to carry out a resurvey. They ahve accepted the demand,” he added.
Mr. Panicker has been organising “Aarkootangal” Lake Assemblies, an organisation which was constituted to protect rivers in the district.
Travancore Cement which has taken up the contract for cleaning up the lake is currently engaged in removing the mud. “Lack of dumping yards near Aakkulam Lake has slowed down the cleaning process,” said Anil Kumar, Manager Travancore Cements.
Experts have pointed out that the size and depth of the lake have changed considerably over the last few years. “We don’t have proper management of sewage waste. Therefore urban waste like e-waste and heavy materials eventually land in Aakkulam. This is happening daily. Hence periodical cleaning of lake is not enough. The source itself is polluted so cleaning should ideally start from there. Finding solution at the end wouldn’t help,” said Srikumar Chattopadhyaya, who co-authored a report with K.N. Harilal on “River restoration in Kerala: developing a co-evolutionary framework and river restoration acti-on plan for Thiruvanantha-puram City.”
The waste dumped in small streams like Ulloor-thodu and Pattamthodu, sewage from Trivandrum central eventually ends up in Aakkulam.
Experts say every ward in city has proper drainage system hence the problem can be treated at the grassroots level with the coopration of residents associations.
