Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Pampa river bed losing water-holding capacity

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Pampa riverbed seems to be losing its water-holding capacity leading to fast flow of the flood waters into the downstream reaches.

The situation in the Pampa along the upper reaches of Kozhencherry testifies to the degradation of the river system as a whole.

The Pampa, which remained swollen till Monday owing to monsoon-induced floods, was reduced to a stream the next day, exposing the mud and sand dunes covered with thickets of grass on the riverbed, following fast draining out of waters into the downstream.

Scientists and environmentalists have expressed deep concern over this alarming rate of degradation of Pampa. Talking to The Hindu, Thomas P. Thomas, Botany professor and environmentalist, D.Padmalal, senior scientist at the Centre for Earth Science Studies in Thiruvananthapuram and N.K. Sukumaran Nair of Pampa Parirakshana Samiti, said this alarming state of affairs was caused owing to large-scale extraction of river sand, lowering the riverbed by five to six metres in the past two decades.

Dr. Padmalal says degradation of the Pamba river basin is felt in the form of an unprecedented rise in the number of communicable diseases in the river basin, salt water ingression in downstream reaches, pollution of the river as well as the wells on its banks and so on.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Drinking water, pilgrim facilities top his agenda
‘Green hour' in schools to keep Thiruvalla clean
Pampa river bed losing water-holding capacity

Copyright © 2011, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu