The Kottooly Wetlands Protection Committee has decided to approach the High Court of Kerala to revoke the order to cancel the injunction on the construction of a sewage treatment plant (STP) at Karimpanappalam in Kozhikode.
The injunction imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in December 2015, based on a petition filed by I.K. Biju on behalf of the Committee, was cancelled for one month by the High Court on June 29, responding to a writ petition filed by the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) that has undertaken the construction of the plant. The sewage treatment plant being constructed on the Kerala Water Authority’s plot next to the Sarovaram Biopark was opposed by the local people right from the beginning on the grounds that it would cause huge environmental issues and pollute the nearby waterbodies, especially the Conolly Canal into which the treated water from the plant was proposed to be discharged. They cited that the STP would disrupt the peaceful ecosystem of Kottooly, one of the State’s notified wetlands. “The KSUDP is all set to restart the construction activities that had been put on hold following the injunction in December,” said KSUDP Project Manager K. Mohan. The KSUDP had appealed to the High Court that waiting for the final hearing on the issue with the NGT on July 25 would cause severe financial loss to the agency.
‘Part of wetland’
However, Mr. Biju, the petitioner on behalf of the committee, said he was unaware of any hearing in the High Court on this issue. He said the committee had in its possession documents to prove that the land where the STP was being built was filled years ago and was essentially part of a wetland. The Corporation had initially planned to fill part of the wetland to build the STP. It was upon the intervention of the NGT that the plan was dropped and the Corporation decided to shift the plant out of the wetland. Incidentally, the present site too shares the survey number of the wetland.
