Under the guise of dredging the Kollam Canal to make it navigable, the canal was converted into a sand mine by contractors. Hundreds of truckloads of construction-grade sand were removed from its bed.
While the contract was to dredge the canal to a depth of about 13 ft, many portions of the canal are now over 30 ft deep as a result of indiscriminate mining. About 30 truckloads of sand used to be mechanically mined from the canal a day and sold at exorbitant rates. The racket behind this activity had strong political connections.
Because of the mining, the water level in most wells near the canal dropped and some even went dry. The canal banks began to develop cracks and at some locations caved in. Though the affected people raised many complaints, no action was taken and the mining activity went on unabated.
There is a general apprehension now that the more than Rs.13 crore spent on renovating and reviving the canal may have gone down the drain. The renovation work began in 2010, but even after five years, the work has not shown much progress.
Except for the fact that more than 1,000 encroachments on the banks of the canal were cleared and the inhabitants rehabilitated elsewhere under the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project, the canal does not reveal even any remote sign of being revived.
Garbage dump
Instead of becoming a beautiful waterway through the city, the canal has now become a health hazard with enormous mass of garbage being dumped into it at various locations.
Hundreds of truckloads of sand mined from it .
