THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An e-mail attributed to A P J Abdul Kalam that did the rounds on the net, had young hairless people in the year 2070, looking old with wrinkled and dehydrated skin, fighting with each other for clean water. With the epidemics of the state already owing their origin to polluted water, recent scientific reports from the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) on water quality of the rivers in the state calls for immediate remedial actions. Forget Nila and Pampa, which are dying, but even relatively virgin rivers such as the Chalakudy river and the Anjarakkandy River, that have their origins in the pristine forests of Nelliyampathy and Kannoth respectively, have been found by scientists to be highly polluted. If 81 percent of the groundwater samples were bacteriologically contaminated and coloured in Pampa basin, in the case of Chalakudy river basin, E.coli was present in 70 percent of groundwater samples during pre-monsoon, 55 percent during monsoon and 62 percent in post-monsoon season. In the case of Anjarakkandy river basin, 85 percent of groundwater samples were found to be contaminated during pre-monsoon, 94 percent during monsoon and 38 percent in the post-monsoon season. Not just E.coli, in Chalakudy river, pesticides such as aldrin were detected in samples collected from Koodapuzha and residues of another pesticide lindane from Koodapuzha and Kanjirapally.Leachate from a nearby industry was said to be contaminating the river. Low dissolved oxygen, abnormal colour and offensive odour were also noticed in Kanjirapally station. Vettilappara, a sand mining station reported high turbidity values in all three seasons - be it pre-monsoon, during monsoon or post-monsoon - clearly showing that the pit formation on the river-bed was affecting the flow of water, making it stagnant and turbid. The water quality of all rivers was monitored for three seasons - pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon. “In the area near Chalakudy bridge, mining of clay, its transportation, processing and improper solid waste disposal were found to cause significant changes in surface water quality,” saidKamalakshan Kokkal, jointdirector, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), who coordinated this water-quality monitoring programme. What is more, heavy metals such as lead, nickel, zinc, manganese, copper and cadmium were detected in the sediment samples of the Chalakudy river. In the Anjarakkandy river, the concentration of iron was found to be high in all samples. In the Anjarakkandy river, apart from traces of the pesticides lindane and aldrin in several areas, endosulfan alpha was detected in the sample taken from Ayithara Bridge, though in low concentration. “In the sites near the Mabram bridge, Pinarayi Palam, Ponniampalam and Kandiar, dissolved oxygen was found to be low probably because of localised organic load,” said Kamalakshan Kokkal.
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