Kerala - Palakkad   

State indifferent to its river’s woes

PALAKKAD: The State government has not taken steps to form an independent authority to protect the Bharathapuzha and manage the river basin as recommended by an expert committee.

The government formed the committee through an order on March 22, 1997. The panel gave its first report in June that year. The committee recommended the formation of the authority and framing of an action plan to save the longest river of the State, the lifeline of Palakkad, Thrissur and Malappuram, providing drinking water and irrigating land in these districts. The committee found the river system under severe environmental strain and recommended treating the system, the tributaries and catchment areas as a single unit to determine the causes of the problems.

Indanur Gopi, member of the expert committee and secretary of the Bharathapuzha Protection Committee, said that in 1992, the then Irrigation Minister, T.M. Jacob, announced the formation of a river management authority. The Director of the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management was entrusted with the framing of its bylaws. But after that, nothing happened.

Recently, the government conducted a workshop for people’s representatives and non-governmental organisations at the Kerala Institute of Local Administration, Thrissur, to decide on using National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme funds for the improvement of the Bharathapuzha basin. But for that, none of the recommendations of the committee was implemented, Mr. Gopi said.

The committee identified four major problems — sand-mining; quality of water during the lean period; quality of water in general; and the morphology of the river, including encroachments.

A study of the Bharathapuzha, headed by A. Biju Kumar, Department of Zoology, N.S.S. College, Ottapalam, some time ago had also reported that the entire riverine ecosystem was in peril. “The urgent requirement of Bharathapuzha is water conservation, along with protection against environmental degradation,” says T.N.N. Bhattathiripad, former Director of Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission.

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