KOCHI: The River Periyar, a source for drinking water for over a million residents in and around Kochi, has been flowing reddish in colour for the past one week allegedly due to industrial units discharging toxic effluents into it. Although people in the locality have brought the attention to the authorities concerned no remedial measures have been taken to mitigate the situation, allege greens.
In the last one decade, the inhabitants of Kochi have been forced to consume salty water at least 50 times, Dr N. Chandramohan Kumar, a former registrar of Cochin University of Science and Technology, said. Participating in a discussion organised by Gram Swaraj Foundation on the subject Dr Kumar said the quality of the river water has eroded, and people are drinking contaminated water.
Apart from pollution, the shrinkage of backwaters in Kochi has hit availability of fish in Periyar seriously, said Dr Kripa of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute of India (CMFRI). A major challenge is to develop a time-bound project for resolving the problem, said K.J. Maxi MLA. He said a solution had to be found with mass participation.
