Caught in a relentless grind of overlapping disasters over the years, it is now the turn of the Pampa, Manimayar and Achencoil river to flow clean and beautiful.
Starting next month, teams of men and machines will swoop down on these three major rivers, which together serve as the lifelines of both Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts, to clear and stabilise the river beds. The project, to be implemented by formulating a government-people collaborative involving the local panchayats, Irrigation, Revenue, Geology and Forest departments, will be executed through a series of micro-level plans.
According to District Collector Divya S. Iyer, removal of the delta formations and silt that obstructs the natural flow of these rivers forms the core of the restoration plan. To begin with, the Kerala Engineering Research Institute under the Irrigation department conducted a survey of the Pampa riverbed and identified 38 locations where desilting has to be carried out.
“Upon examining the technical aspects of this plan, a list of permitted activities will be prepared and restoration works will be taken up in the panchayats under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. We have asked the institute to prepare an estimate of the silt to be removed from each of these locations,‘‘ said the official.
Activities that require regulatory clearances will be taken up in the next phase while a management plan for the silt to be collected too will be formulated. To coordinate the activities by various agencies, a district level monitoring committee too will be constituted, she added.
Irrigation Officials said a draft plan of the project was approved during a meeting of the government officials including the Irrigation Division Executive Engineer of Kollam and Minor Irrigation Executive Engineer of Pathanamthitta. During the meeting, also attended by the Pathanamathitta District Panchayat president Omallur Shankaran, the Collector also directed to prepare a detailed plan of action for implementing the project.
According to them, the project is being implemented with a view to cut the flood risk faced by these water bodies. Besides ensuring uninterrupted water flow, the project also aims to reconnect the floodplain to the river channel and improve bank protection and stability.
“Besides deepening the river bed, the banks will be strengthened using coir-geotextiles and planting flood resistant trees,” explained an official.
Inflow in the Manimalayar, Pampa and Achencoilk river often witness a sudden surge during the monsoons, leaving a trail of destruction in their downstream areas and necessitating a massive evacuation of families across the Kuttanad and Upper Kuttanad regions. The back to back floods, especially since 2018, have also caused severe damages to the rich riparian vegetation of these water bodies.
