Kerala - Alappuzha   

Drinking water problem dogs people of Alappuzha

ALAPPUZHA: People of Alappuzha have perennially been troubled by shortage of drinking water. And now, the only source of drinking water they have, the reverse osmosis plant-driven water distribution points here, are letting them down.

With no reliable natural drinking water source available in Alappuzha, the previous government had set up six Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants at Chudukadu, Alissery, Vazhissery, Kommadi, Pazhavangadi and Chandanakavu with finance from the local MLAs funds. All the points were witnessing large queues of the public.

However, of late, the scene has changed. Complaints of high acidity, sour taste and contaminated water are cropping up from several places with the public alleging that the RO plants are seldom maintained in the way that they should be.

The people said that water from the Chudukadu point was acidic while the one at Vazhissery, situated close to the Kerala Water Authority’s (KWA) regional office, had a foul smell.

Enquiries revealed that while plants at Alissery and Chandanakavu were functioning without major complaints, those at Kommadi and Pazhavangadi had hardly any takers. In fact, the KWA has hung a board at the Pazhavangadi plant saying that it is “temporarily closed.” The situation at Kommadi is no different.

Though the KWA officials maintained that there were “no major problems” with the quality of water supplied through the RO points, they admitted that there were problems with maintenance of the plants.

“There is no separate allowance from the government for maintenance of these plants. We have to find money from the general Operation & Maintenance (O&M) funds for this. And that is a difficult task,” said an official, indicating that no proper maintenance of the plants was taking place.

Denying that any of the points were distributing water even when the RO plant was defunct, as a few complaints indicated, officials admitted that they themselves were hesitant to take water from some of these points, particularly the Pazhavangadi point, to their own homes.

Enquiries also revealed that there were numerous complaints over the manner in which tenders for more RO plants, even when the existing ones were not functioning properly, were being called. For instance, a new plant is about to be set up at Vadikadu, for which tenders have been awarded.

The KWA sources said this plant had no administrative sanction and that the sanction given for another plant at Chathanadu was “illegally given” to the Vadikadu plant. This was even after the divisional assistant and technical assistant had specifically called for re-tendering of the project.

However, these warnings were overruled without giving “substantial reasons,” the sources said.

Even as cash crunch, corruption, quality issues and official indifference dog the only sources of pure water here, promises of another major drinking water project are yet to take off.

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