Budget set to resolve Kuttanad water woes

Alappuzha: The people in Kuttanad have reason to cheer as the state budget has proposed a  Kuttanad lake environment revival project, which is under preparation to seek World Bank assistance.   The budget has promised  to complete the  drinking water scheme  on a war footing to  keep  the Thaneermukkam bund open throughout the year. The project is ready for submission to KIIFB.  It is planned to stop the tourism- related pollution and the flow of sewage from towns to the  lake. The third phase construction of the bund has come to standstill due to the delay in releasing the central  funds. Recently,  the contractors had kept the works pending as they didn’t receive Rs 20 crore for the completed work.

With the completion of the third phase costing  Rs 255 crore,  the bund will be the largest river bridge in the state and it will stop the annual ingress of brackish water giving a thrust to faming in Kuttanad.   The irrigation department has claimed that  it  can complete the work with Rs 220 crore. As per the DPR,  the cost  should  be shared equally (50:50)  by the state and union governments. However, the centre  is yet to release  the funds. So far  the state government has spent Rs 170 crore  hoping that the  union government will reimburse the amount.   

According to an engineer with the irrigation department, there are 28 pillars in the third phase with 425-metre length each.  There is also a boat lock for the movement of boats under the bund  with 28 shutters,   and 14 shutters have already been erected.  The third phase construction  was kicked off on July 1, 2016,   39 years after  the  bund was commissioned.    A  1450- metre- long  bund was constructed across Vembanad lake in 1975  to prevent  the flow of saline water to Kuttanad from Arabian sea during summer.    The irrigation department had installed shutters only at a length of  900 metres of the bund.