Pampa cries out for conservation

Waste dumping,sand-mining pose threat to the river

May 24, 2016 12:00 am | Updated September 12, 2016 08:18 pm IST - PATHANAMTHITTA:

A river once:A summer view of the Perunthenaruvi stretch of the Pampa in Ranni.— PHOTO: LEJU KAMAL

A river once:A summer view of the Perunthenaruvi stretch of the Pampa in Ranni.— PHOTO: LEJU KAMAL

The degradation of the Pampa, the second largest river in the State, appears to be a topic less talked about in recent times.

Negligence on the part of successive governments towards conservation of this once vibrant river system with as many as 300 tributaries is very much evident from the fast depleting water level soon after the rainy season. Experts attribute this to the indiscriminate sand collection from the riverbed, leading to increased velocity of water flow and loss of water-holding capacity of the riverbed.

Rampant sand collection has lowered the riverbed even below the mean sea level and salinity intrusion has been reported beyond Kozhencherry, leaving many varieties of freshwater fishes extinct.

N.K. Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of the Pampa Parirakshana Samiti, told The Hindu that various studies conducted by the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) had found the algal and benthic biomass and diversity generally low in many stretches of the river.

Mr. Nair said not less than 30 fish species in the Pampa had been listed as threatened, of which five belonged to the endangered group.

The Pampa is the lifeline of the districts of Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Alappuzha, which include Kuttanad and Upper Kutanad. Not less than five million people depend on the river for their domestic water needs.

Mr. Nair said studies conducted by the Centre for Earth Science Studies revealed that the Pampa riverbed had already gone down by five to six metres from the level 20 years ago.

Flow of all sorts of filth, including human excreta from the toilet blocks at Sabarimala, markets and towns on the river banks, into the Pampa, has been identified a major source of river pollution.

Though the Union government had included the Pampa in the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) way back in 2003, the Rs.320-crore Pampa Action Plan envisaged as part of the project failed at the implementation level, said Thomas P. Thomas, botanist and environmentalist.

The scorching sun has turned dry almost all rivulets leading to the Pampa.

The failure of the authorities to check the callous dumping of waste had converted it into a pool of filth at many places, Dr. Thomas said. He said it was high time that schemes to conserve the Pampa were implemented.

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