An action plan is being worked out to check the worsening pollution of waterbodies caused by unscientific waste management practices in backwater tourism sites based on the recommendations by the Subject Committee on Forest, Environment and Tourism.
The Local Self-Government Department has asked departments and agencies concerned to submit a progress report on the findings and recommendations of the committee submitted to the government in January. The report termed the finding that nearly 36% of the waterbodies in the State has been polluted as ‘alarming’. Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Malappuram and Kasaragod were the districts having major backwater tourism sites.
On the inference that houseboats were a major source of pollution, the committee had asked the Local Self-Government Department and the Pollution Control Board to carry out stringent checks in houseboats. The guidelines on classification of houseboats must include proper waste disposal as a key provision, it said.
From apartments
The department will have to update on the setting up of seven plants for scientific disposal of faecal sludge from the apartments located close to the backwaters in Kollam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Kannur under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme. The local bodies concerned will have to find out the illegal outlets from the apartments into the waterbodies and take legal action against violators.
The Tourism Department has to come up with a unified set of guidelines for construction of resorts and homestays close to backwater sites as it was found that the department had no control over violations, if any, in the construction stage.
The Suchitwa Mission will have to take the lead in ensuring that toilets located close to the backwaters have septic tanks as per norms. Local bodies and the board should initiate action against those dumping septage into waterbodies. They should provide or renew licence to resorts only after ensuring that the institutions had set up sewage treatment plants and waste disposal mechanisms as per rules.
