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Sewage continues to daunt Sabarimala during pilgrim season

PATHANAMTHITTA: Sewage disposal is most likely to continue as a major problem at Sabarimala during the Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrim season owing to inadequate waste disposal facility at the pilgrim centre.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is yet to initiate steps to construct the proposed modern sewage treatment plant (STP) at the Sannidhanam before the pilgrim season that begins on November 16.

The TDB is planning to set up an STP with a capacity of 3 mld (three million litres per day) and a recent meeting of the apex-level committee chaired by the Chief Secretary decided to clear the hurdles on its implementation on a war footing.

However, experts say that the project is unlikely to materialise before the coming Sabarimala festival owing to technical reasons.

Meanwhile, experts attached to State Pollution Control Board opined that the proposed STP could never meet the needs at the Sannidhanam during the pilgrim season. They said an STP with not less than 10 mld capacity was needed during the pilgrim season. Similarly, sewage generation at Pampa was estimated at 10 mld during the annual festival and hence capacity augmentation of the existing STP at Cheriyanavattom from 4.5 mld to at least 10 mld was a dire necessity, PCB sources said.

They said the pollution status of the Pampa was brought down considerably during the previous festival period by introducing a new direct river treatment system in the Njunangar that carried all sort of filth from the Sannidhanam to the Pampa.

The coliform count in the Pampa was recorded at 30,000 per 100 ml of river water during the Makaravilakku festival in 2007 against its previous year’s figure of 2.5 lakh per 100 ml of river water, they added. The PCB also proposed quashing of user fee at the latrine complexes at Pampa and at the Sannidhanam in an attempt to check the fleecing of pilgrims by contractors.

An offer from the district authority last year to the TDB for free running of the TDB latrine complexes at Sabarimala by engaging Sabarimala Sanitation Society workers too was yet to be taken into consideration.

A PCB report on the previous Sabarimala festival stated that the septic tank on the Kerala State Electricity Board premises at Pampa was found overflowing into the Pampa on several occasions.

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Sewage continues to daunt Sabarimala during pilgrim season

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