City’s coast yet to get proper sewerage facilities

Work to linking the areas to Muttathara treatment plant on a standstill

Areas lying well within the city may be linked to the state-of-the-art Muttathara treatment plant but the coastal areas are yet to get connected to the plant despite it lying close to the coast.

It is more than nine years since the work on a sewerage system for the coastal areas began with a plan to link the system to the Muttathara plant. But despite laying of several kilometres of pipes in various wards along the coast, the work still remains incomplete and almost standstill.

For the proposed sewerage system from Poonthura to Veli, the area has been divided into four zones — F1, G1, F2 and G2. In the G1 block, covering the Poonthura, Manikyavilakom, Beemapally, Beemapally East, Valiyathura, and parts of the Vallakkadavu ward, 6.52 kilometres of PVC pipes and 1.109 kilometres of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipes have been laid.

But as this network has not been completed, none of the houses in this area are connected to the city’s sewerage network, says a reply from Executive Engineer’s office to a Right To Information application submitted by Tony Oliver, president of the Trivandrum Kambavala Matsyathozhilali Federation.

After the project was launched in 2013, pipes were laid at several areas by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) through a project funded by the city Corporation under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. The private company, which had been contracted for the project, was able to construct only one of the required number of four pump houses due to lack of availability of land.

The plan was later redesigned to get the network running using just one pump house. But, this change necessitated that the sewerage pipes be laid at a depth of 9 metres. The project dragged on due to this and came to a standstill a couple of years later, after the Empowered Committee for the project terminated the services of the contractor citing delays. Funds of ₹7.35 crore were spent on this project, as per the RTI reply.

“For several years, all the waste water from the city used to end up at the sewage farm at Valiyathura. With the opening of the treatment plant at Muttathara, we had hope of a sewage system coming in these parts too, but to no avail,” says Mr. Oliver.

In the F2 block, comprising the Kadakampally ward and parts of the Perunthanni, Muttathara and Vallakadavu wards, 73% of the work on pump house and installation of sewer pipes and manholes has been completed, as per a reply given by Water Resources Minister K. Krishnakutty in the Assembly in 2019.

In the F1 block, covering Shanghumughom, Vettukad and Kannanthura wards, three pump houses were planned. But the project has not begun because of non-availability of land. In the G2 block, comprising the Puthanpally, Ambalathara and Idayar wards, and parts of Muttathara, work has not begun because land for pump house is unavailable.

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