Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala State Pollution Control Board has issued closure intention notice to a ladies’ hostel near Technopark, alleging it has been polluting Vallathode, a fresh water pond, with untreated sewage waste. The notice dated March 26 offers the owners of Salaams Kailas Ladies’ Hostel 15 days time, within which they have to take adequate corrective measures, failing which the hostel will have to be shut and the inmates be moved to a new place. The hostel just has a septic tank and soak pit for sewage disposal, according to the notice. It has 200 inmates, including staff, according to its Abdul Salam, who runs the place.
The hostel belongs to his son. Abdul Salam said that they received a warning notice and not a closure notice. “We have completed 85 per cent of the civil work. The equipment needs to be installed. It is in progress. The Board has been informed about this. When we were issued a notice two months ago, we were given six months’ time. Now we have been given 15 days,” he said. The present working of the unit is without adequate pollution control measures and without complying with the consent to operate conditions of the board, according to the notice. “For one person, the sewage disposal mechanism should have a capacity of 150 litres. This calls for a plant with a capacity of 30-40 cubic metre/day,” says an official.
Abdul Salam says that there are four soak pits into which sewage outlets are connected. Later sewage is pumped and deposited into two 40-feet pits according to him. The pollution of Thettiyar was an issue which was constantly being pursued by a people’s collective called Thettiyar Sahajeevan Swaraj. One of its senior members N.N. Panikkar said that the pollution of Vallathode, a pond which is connected to Thettiyar, is only increasing by the day. The Board had earlier issued notices to various hostels, apartment complexes and Technopark companies to stop polluting Thettiyar. Many complied, but some like Salaam Kailas, despite assuring that they will start building an STP did not do it, according to officials.
