Thiruvananthapuram: Residents of Pulimuttom near Nalpathadipalam bridge will have to wait for some more time for a water pipeline, said Mayor V.K. Prasanth. “It will have to be presented in the council and tender procedures need to be completed. I suggested that water tankers be made available, but they were not keen on that,” he said. Water tankers would not be able to reach their homes. They will have to continue drawing water from a pipe near Pound Kadavu junction, walking at least half a kilometre; or wading to it, if it’s monsoon.
Houses turning into waterlogged islands is only part of the problem. The flooding Thettiyar contains untreated sewage waste, plastic and glass, some of which would be left behind when the water recedes, according to Sulfekar B, whose parents live here. “The stench lasts for weeks,” he says. The old and the young complain of frequent bouts of fever. According to a report published by the collective Thettiyar Sahajeevan Swaraj, sewage water from high rise apartments near Technopark and Technopark buildings pollute Thettiyar canal.
Sulfekar says that untreated sewage water from high-rises lining the bypass also pollute the river. Their wells brim with unsafe water. Stuffing everything into trunks and placing those on cots and tables has become an annual ritual for this mother Jameela Beevi, a 59-year-old cancer survivor. “We have spent a lot of money for my treatment. If we had the means to buy even one cent of land, we would have moved out. Ours is a cursed existence,” she says.
There are no streetlights. “Should there be an emergency at night in monsoon, we would be practically cut off,” says C. Ponnamma, a resident. Meanwhile there are ghost houses in Pulimuttom. Some who moved out, are letting out their homes to labourers. For years, the people here have been approaching councillors to solve their problems. This time, a signature campaign to lay drinking water line was undertaken by S.R. Sanjeev, founder of NGO Environment Protection and Research Council. “There was little response when we approached the administration,” he said.
