A project to rejuvenate the Kolarayar rivulet that links Arackal Mukhappu on the Pampa river banks at Kadapra with the Areethode stream leading to the Pampa at Niranom is fast progressing
The people’s committee that is undertaking the first phase of the project has cleared weeds and other blocks in the stream along 2 km from Arackal Mukhappu.
People’s representatives in the Kadapra and Niranom panchayats were part of the committee, Sam Eapen, district panchayat member, and Eapen Kurien, Pulikeezhu block panchayat president, who are in the forefront of the project, said.
Funds
The committee had also been mobilising funds from the public for the weed-clearing drive.
Large-scale encroachment, heavy siltation, and lowering of the Pampa riverbed due to indiscriminate sand-mining were said to be the major factors that led to the degeneration of the waterway over the past three decades.
Illegal encroachments have converted this once-perennial water source into plain land along several stretches, leaving the stream as a chain of stagnant pools of polluted water.
Mr. Kurien said the Pulikeezhu block panchayat had submitted a detailed action plan to regain the lost glory of the stream. He said the previous government had also approved the action plan.
Mr. Kurien said the panchayat survey team had identified 25 major encroachments on the stream in Kadapra and Niranom panchayats alone.
Mr. Sam Eapen told The Hindu that the rejuvenation of the Kolarayar would help irrigation of not less than 1,500 ha of paddy fields in Kadapra, Thalavady, and Niranom panchayats, besides reopening the stream for water transport.
Mr. Kurien said the block panchayat project also proposed tourism promotion in the Kolarayar that meandered through the historically important places of Niranom, Arackalmali, Elanjickal Church, Nerkadavu, and Alamthuruthy. The St. Thomas Church founded by St. Thomas the Apostle and the ancient Bhagavathy temple in Niranom panchayat are also situated on its basin.
Water Resources Minister Mathew T. Thomas who inaugurated the project 10 days ago promised to complete the second phase of the rivulet rejuvenation project with government funds, said Mr. Kurien.
