The inundation of roads and a few hundred houses located on either side of Kareethodu Canal that runs parallel to Palarivattom-Vyttila NH Bypass, whenever the city records heavy rainfall, has shed the spotlight on how increasing number of encroachments are choking the flow of water along the canal.
Fed up of flooding, residents and other affected people formed a Kareethodu Samrakshana Samity, to catalyse efforts to remove bottlenecks to free flow of water, so that water from Palarivattom reached Vyttila through the canal and drained into Kaniampuzha River. Subsequently, over a dozen meetings were held under the chairmanship of P.T. Thomas, MLA, who walked along the stretch to get a first-hand information of the situation.
“Two culverts (at Mannarakara and Kaniaveli) were rebuilt, to prevent them becoming choking points on the canal. Two more (at Pulluparambu and Kaduppath) will be rebuilt, at a cost of approximately ₹2 crore. The project has got administrative sanction, while a Government Order is awaited,” Mr. Thomas said.
“However, this will only provide temporary respite. A permanent solution to dirty water overflowing into houses and public spaces is to remove encroachments into the waterbody. In addition, over 40 people have built narrow, low-lying, bridge-like structures over the canal. These too hamper free flow of water and must be rebuilt. These two critical works must be realised by summer of 2021, to prevent a repeat of the mess created by floods. A survey will reveal the extent of encroachments into the canal,” he added.
The secretary of Puthiya Road-Kaniapilly Road Residents’ Association, A.S. Boban, spoke of how areas like Puthiya Road and Pulluparambu are amongst the worst affected by floods. “The canal was once navigable and had width up to seven metres. It has now tapered down to no more than a drain which is hardly 2-m wide in many places, due to rampant encroachments. This has in turn contributed to flooding of service roads of NH Bypass too, at many areas. The Irrigation Department, which maintains the canal, must publish its sketch, so that the encroachments which stand out, can be evicted. We will approach the court if government agencies fail to rectify the situation, since people living in four wards of Kochi Corporation are affected by the floods,” he said.
The councillor representing Chakkaraparambu (Ward No. 46), P.M. Naseema said that many houses have encroached into the canal have their kitchen or work area in it. “This affects desilting of the canal since excavators cannot negotiate through bottlenecked spaces. The walls of two houses had to be broken recently, for machinery to enter the canal for desilting,” she said.
