When John Abraham's play Naykkali was staged in Chellanam in the early eighties, one of the issues raised by the characters was the shortage of drinking water. And, when the play returned to the coastal village early this year, the issue was still alive.
This is not the case of Chellanam alone. Thousands of women from Vypeen marched to the mainland in 1997 and held the city hostage for five days. Their demand was simple – clean drinking water. The agitation speeded up the completion of the HUDCO water project, which promised 25 mld a day for West Kochi and 10 mld for Vypeen.
“But the promised quantity of water is never supplied. What we need now is time-bound completion of water supply projects that are based on water resources other than Periyar – like Chowara, Vedimara and Choondi projects,” said Charles George, one of the leaders of the agitation.
Those like Mr. George have been calling for a master plan and a probe into what went wrong with schemes currently active. “Please note that out of five water tanks constructed in West Kochi, only two are used. The others are out of use because of faulty construction,” he said.
These are issues to be taken up in the long run. But for residents along the coast, the threat of parched summer is already looming large over them and the authorities are clueless. They still deliberate on how to convene meetings and are only starting to discuss the issue.
“The situation is critical. Even after shifting the time for pumping water along pipelines from night to day hours, not all areas of the panchayat are getting enough water. We are planning to convene a meeting to discuss the issue soon,” said K.P. Thankachan, president of Chellanam panchayat.
