ADB threatens to close loan for Mundamveli sewage plant

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which had extended a loan of about Rs. 85 crore towards the Rs. 200-crore sewage treatment plant for West Kochi at Mundamveli, has threatened to close the loan as no work has progressed even after a year of the two-year contract period.

It is learnt that the ADB officials, who had visited the site to inspect the progress of work, were disappointed that no work worth mention had taken place. Urban Affairs Secretary A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish confirmed that if sewerage lines were not laid by June 13, 2016, the financial aid from the ADB would be withdrawn.

Mr. Hanish said the sewage treatment plant and sewerage lines were two components of the project. While laying of the sewerage lines had been sanctioned, the go-ahead for the treatment plant is yet to come by and is under the scrutiny of the National Green Tribunal.

The project was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister during the mass contact programme held here recently and it was decided that the work would be taken ahead, to which the City Mayor had also agreed.

When contacted, Corporation councillor and Health Standing Committee chairman T.K. Ashraf told The Hindu that there was no stoppage of work, and that work was on near the Cochin College area.

It is learnt that officials of the Kerala Water Authority, the implementing agency for the project under the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project, had to abandon two sites after locals protested. A third site identified for the project had to be abandoned even before work could be started.

With a high water table in the area, the septic tanks in West Kochi overflow into the public drains. Leaks from the septic tanks also contaminate the soil. Water supplied through KWA’s pipelines was found to have high e-coli contamination because it came into contact with contaminated water as the pipelines pass through the drains at many points. SSA total expenditure of Rs. 40.9 crore was made towards the project, of which Rs. 4 crore was spent towards land filling in the area where the plant is to come up at Mundamveli. The pipelines needed to collect septage were also bought at an expense of Rs. 35 crore.