Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

No respite from sewage flooding

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM. July 14. The problem of flooding of sewage at Pazhayattinkuzhi near Idappazhanji continues unabated despite attempts by the city corporation and the Kerala Water Authority to solve the problem.

Even though three suction pumps have been operating for the last three days, a large quantity of sewage still remained in the vacant plots in the area. KWA officials have broken open the bund by the side of the river Killi and installed two pipes to drain off some of the stagnant sewage into the river. The sewage is being drained into what was once the rivulet Kochar and which now serves as a storm drain. This drain is now full of sewage pumped out from Pazhayattinkuzhi.

Residents of the area say that they had approached the Sasthamangalam section of the KWA for help three months ago when the sewage flooding started. "Not a single section official turned up. If they had intervened earlier, the situation would not have become this bad," said Suresh Babu, who had to abandon his house as it got filled with sewage.

The local people, on Tuesday, blocked the overflow pipes of the nearby Intercepting Sewer (IS), which ferries sewerage from the KWA's pump-house at Pippinmoodu to Kuriathi.

"Four years ago the KWA cheated us by saying the overflow pipe they constructed by breaking open the IS was for draining away storm water. We learnt the truth much later. Now, the pipes supplying drinking water to our houses have been submerged in this filth for the past three months," said Lal, a local resident.

Sources in the KWA said the Intercepting Sewer had become overloaded over the past few years owing to a surge in unauthorised drainage connections in nearby places including Sasthamangalam and Pippinmoodu.

A senior engineer of the KWA admitted that the authority had failed to check such connections and that little is being done now to remove such connections.

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