While citizens have little choice but to live amid sewage carrying Raja Kaluves that were once live streams, Mangaluru City Corporation’s deliberate act of letting untreated sewage into a perennial stream on the outskirts of the city has not only been killing the stream but it is also feeding the masses sewage-mixed drinking water.
The stream, flowing in the valley between Airport Road and the Moodbidri highway, perhaps, originating near Kudupu hills, passes through Bondel, Pachchanadi, Manjalpade and Padushedde before joining the Phalguni (Gurupura) in the upstream of Malavoor vented dam.
The dam is the source of water for the multi-village drinking water scheme catering to Bajpe, Moodushedde and other villages. Till about six years ago, crystal clear water flowed in the stream, called Pachchanadi Thodu, throughout the year except during the monsoon, recalled Raviraj, a resident of Bondel.
As waste at the Pachchanadi dumping yard kept on piling up, massive leachete from the dump began to join the stream following the natural gradient, Mr. Raviraj noted. If this was not enough, rapid urbanisation in the region also contributed to the stream’s pollution with households letting out domestic discharge in open drains that joined the stream.
The worst part, Mr. Raviraj said, is that the corporation also is letting out untreated sewage from parts of the city through the Pachchanadi wet well directly into the stream. The malfunctioning Pachchanadi Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) from where the Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama too gets treated water could not receive raw sewage which was being let out into the stream, he said.
District in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojari had in June last announced that he would get ₹5 crore from the government to improve the working of the STP. However, it is yet to be done. The Minister quoting local residents as saying had said that raw sewage was joining the Phalguni too thereby making life miserable.
Mayor Premananda Shetty said that he is also doubtful whether the STP has been made functional. “I have directed the Deputy Commissioner (Development) to look into the issue and take appropriate action,” he told The Hindu . Mr. Shetty added that existing streams should not be allowed to become sewage canals and the city corporation would make serious efforts to stop pollution of the Pachchanadi stream.
