The long-pending Manakkakadavu drinking water project has seen ruling and opposition parties in Thrikkakara municipality lock horns over its feasibility. The ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) council led by Congress party veteran Ajitha Thankappan said that the project would not be in the best interest of people in the eastern wards of the municipality as the quality of water from Kadambrayar had been found not fit for human consumption.
She said the project was envisaged to solve drinking water shortage in eastern wards like Thengode, Edachira, Vallyattumugal and Navodaya among others but that the water had been found to be too polluted to be used for drinking water supply.
However, Opposition leader and senior CPI(M) member in the council M.K. Chandrababu said that the project, initially proposed by the LDF, was being sabotaged purely on political grounds. He said that there was an urgent need to solve drinking water shortage in the eastern areas of the municipality, which the present council was not addressing.
However, the municipal chairperson said that water available in the Kadambrayar had been tested and found to be polluted and it would not be healthy for people. She said the money set aside for the drinking water project would be utilised to implement another project that would solve the drinking water shortage in the entire eastern belt of the municipality.
LDF councillors, on the other hand, alleged that the tender for the project, costing around ₹1.62 crore, was invited in consultation with the Water Authority and that it was purely a political decision by the ruling council to cancel the tender. The project was cancelled because the wards which will mostly benefit from it had voted for the Opposition, Mr. Chandrababu alleged.
K.K. Gopakumar of Thrikkakara Jana Munnettam, a movement not affiliated to leading political fronts, said that the municipality had over a hundred public open wells, which could be utilised to solve the problem of drinking water shortage in some of the areas.
