THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Technopark is one of the sources which pollute Vallathode pond and thereby Thettiyar canal connected to it, according to a study by Thettiyar Sahajeevan Swaraj, a collective.
However, the major cause of Thettiyar’s pollution is untreated sewage waste from apartment complexes situated above Vallathode pond, they say. The polluted water from the pond is carried to Thettiyar by drainage pipes which cut through TCS complex.
The report is yet to be published, but the collective shared some of its findings with DC. The slurry from the biogas plant common to Bhavani and Tejaswini buildings lands in Vallathode pond. An official at Technopark said that there was an overflow during rain, but now there is no issue. The official added that soon there will be a cover over the plant to ensure the incident does not repeat.
One of the apartment complexes has what looked like a minefield of soak pits. These huge pits were not covered. A hosepipe from the buildings in the complex conveyed faecal matter to the pit. Former VSSC environmental test facility engineer K. Sasidharan Nair, who was part of the 10-member team which investigated the pollution of Thettiyar, says he counted more than 8 such pits.
Lining the banks of Vallathode pond are mounds of toxic glass wool and several other inorganic waste. Mr N.N. Panicker, a senior member of the collective, says that through Thettiyar Sahajeevan Swaraj’s intervention, a contractor who was regularly dumping glass wool here agreed to take it all back. Now, the local residents say that someone else has restarted dumping glass wool in the same area.
The ones who live along the bank of Thettiyar have suffered greatly from the pollution. S Sreelekha, a resident, says that when 34 ducks she reared died, she received around '3,000 as compensation from TCS.
“Water would be tar black during summer. Rains have now mellowed the colour and stench,” she says. However, since TCS has a sewage treatment plant (STP), it might not be a contributor to the pollution, according to the study team.
