The Congress has threatened to launch a people’s protest amid the election campaign against the State government’s alleged apathy and lack of vision in addressing the ever-worsening drinking water shortage in Ernakulam, including Kochi city.
Briefing the media in Kochi on March 30 (Saturday), Hibi Eden, MP, and MLAs T.J. Vinod and Uma Thomas raised three critical issues — the government’s alleged disregard in pursuing a 190 MLD plant in Aluva to improve drinking water supply conceived during the tenure of the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government, absence of projects to rejuvenate water sources, and the alleged failure on the part of the authorities in deploying water tankers in areas affected by water shortage.
Mr. Eden alleged that the government had completely abandoned the proposed 190 MLD plant while drawing parallels with its enthusiasm for supplying 45 MLD water to Kinfra from the Periyar despite the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and the Irrigation department initially vouching that the Periyar did not have enough water for supply to Kinfra. Such a critical project, the cost of which has escalated from the original ₹232 crore to over ₹500 crore owing to the delay, has neither figured in the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) projects worth crores nor the Asian Development Bank project.
“The alleged apathy towards the district, which is the biggest contributor to the State exchequer in unacceptable. Residents associations and other organisations have staged numerous protests at KWA offices over the issue since January last. Earlier, KWA officials used to at least conduct inspections on receiving complaints, but they are not even doing that now,” Mr. Eden said.
Mr. Vinod said thousands of water connections had been given under the Jal Jeevan Mission though without doing anything to rejuvenate water sources to ensure supply through these connections. Similarly, six new overhead tankers have been built across the city under the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) Scheme, but water is being supplied to just two. Also, there is no distribution network from the 17-lakh-litre tanker at Pachalam, leaving it redundant.
“The district administration insists that tanker lorries for distributing water in affected areas should be deployed by local bodies. However, the Kochi Corporation claims it cannot citing potential audit objections. The city gets only 125 MLD water from the Aluva plant, out of which the KWA itself admits that around 30% is lost in distribution. The 53.50 MLD water from the Maradu plant accounts for only around 65% of the demand,” Mr. Vinod said.
Ms. Thomas said she was getting calls daily from families with bedridden patients regarding the shortage of drinking water. Apartment complexes, which are not even getting water worth ₹25,000, are being slapped with bills running into lakhs of rupees. “In Kakkanad, water supply is restricted to once every four days, and even that gets disrupted. The Periyar is being fleeced for 45 MLD water supply to Kinfra, which has the resources to purify water from Kadamprayar for its usage,” she added.
