Following outcry by residents in the neighbourhood over an overflowing garbage pit, the size of a pond, at Puthankulangara in Eroor, polluting wells in the vicinity and breeding worms and mosquitoes, the Thripunithura municipality has served notice on two individuals owning the land asking them to take measures within a week to fill up the pit.
The notice, served on the basis of the municipal health inspector’s report, has also demanded that they arrest seepage of dirty water to the public areas and streets. The action came after residents of the Kuttikkatt Lane petitioned municipal chairperson Chandrika Devi about a stinking pit filled with septage, garbage and rubbish contaminating well water and posing serious health threats to people in the neighbourhood.
Sony M. Sunny, executive committee member of the Puthankulangara Residents’ Association and one of the petitioners, said the pit, formed when soil was scooped out of the area for construction of a bridge in Eroor back in the 1980s, had become a dumping ground for garbage, domestic waste and septage. “There’s severe stink emanating from the pool and there’s colour change in the water supplied by the water authority as well. It poses serious public health hazard.”
Two people own it
The waste pool, spread over nearly 27 cents of land, conjoins with another 30 cents or so in a compound that is under the ownership of two people.
R.S. Madhu, health inspector of the municipality, inspected the area falling in ward one of the municipality and found that the complaint held water. The health department sprayed decontaminators over the pool, but there’s a need to clean it up, he said. Ms. Chandrika Devi also said the municipality would write to the District Collector to look into the issue and think of ways for the proper upkeep of similar spots in the municipality. On Friday evening, at the instruction of District Collector K. Mohammed Y Safirulla, officials inspected the area to take stock of the water contamination caused by the pool in the neighbourhood.
