KOCHI: A team from the German firm GTZ has started the survey and sampling of the Kuzhikandam Canal, said to be stuffed with hazardous industrial waste from the Eloor-Edayar area, for the proposed clean-up of the canal with World Bank aid.

The team will collect extensive samples for more than a month from several points on the 6.4-km canal, which is said to be a highly toxic water body.

It will dredge the canal at identified points and collect both surface samples and sediments from varying depths. The team will also study the canal's neighbouring areas in Eloor and Kadungalloor panchayat to get an idea of the impact of the toxic industrial waste deposited in the canal in these areas.

The firm, hired by the Central Pollution Control Board, will prepare a project report by May and GTZ and Kerala State Pollution Control Board will present it to the World Bank for its financial support.

The firm has done such studies in Karanataka.

Kuzhikkandam Canal is said to contain toxic waste let out by the chemical factories in its neighbourhood. The local residents have long complained of serious crippling impact of the canal on their health.

A senior official of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board said the clean-up would be very expensive and time-consuming.

No proper scientific study of the toxic level of the canal or the scale of its impact has been carried out so far, he said.

The Eloor-Edayal area has some 70 industrial units and many of them produce chemicals.

Some of the hazardous effluents let out by these factories end up in the canal.

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