No step has been taken to supply drinking water to the Attappady tribal hamlets here though a meeting of Ministers and officials on April 20 at Agali had decided to provide drinking water in tankers.
This was stated at a review meeting at the Collectorate Conference Hall on Monday, which was presided over by Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes A.P. Anil Kumar.
It was found that water had not been distributed to the tribal people except at a couple of hamlets at Agali town and adjoining areas.
Even for the Government Tribal Specialty Hospital at Kottathara water was being pumped directly from the river.
Mannarkad MLA N. Shamusdeen demanded that a treatment plant should be set up immediately to avoid supplying contaminated drinking water directly from the river source to patients at the hospital.
The water was contaminated and contained high fluoride and other harmful substances, as per a test conducted at the Kerala Water Authority’s lab at Kalmandalam. The meeting decided to take steps to chlorinate all water sources.
There were complaints that tankers earlier engaged in transporting factory effluents in Tamil Nadu were being used to supply drinking water.
The Minister said each grama panchayat was sanctioned Rs.1 lakh each for distributing drinking water in tanker lorries. The meeting decided to entrust the Kerala Water Authority the task of supplying water at Attappady since the Jalanidhi scheme and the AHADS drinking water project had failed in providing drinking water to the area.
The meeting also decided to use the water testing laboratory of AHADS at Attappady for testing the drinking water to be distributed in the area.
