War of words over Meeanchil river restoration escalates

As works on restoring the Meenachil river near Peroor progresses under police protection, the war of words over the project has raged further with the environmentalists alleging that it clearly violated the guidelines on sand mining set by the Ministry of Environment and Forest.

According to S. Ramachandran, Meenachil River protection Council president, the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines (SSMMG) 2016 as well as the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining (EMGSM) 2020 calls for preparation of a district survey report before mining sand from the river bed.

“The authorities have not prepared any such reports as far as Kottayam is concerned. There are no mining plans either, which require identifying the areas of deposition, calculation of annual replenishment rate and determining measures to prevent bank erosion,” he said.

He pointed out that the authorities had also failed to mark the height of the nearest saline water source before mining sand from the riverbed. “The depth of the Vembanad Lake at Pazhukkanila, which is the closest saline water source, is just 2 m while that of the river at Chungam is around seven meters while at Peroor, it varies between five to seven meters,” he added.

Holding that the sandbank on the riverbed at Peroor, which also accommodates a vast riparian forest, played a key role in regulating the incursion of saline water into the Meenachil, he also called for a scientific analysis to determine its height from the riverbed.

The Meenachil-Meenanthara-Kodoor river relinking programme, which executes the work, sought to dismiss these allegations. “The works are being carried out as per the guidelines set by a committee headed by the District Collector and the height of the restored river bed will be set at just 80 m below the water level of the Vembanad lake,’’ explained K. Anil Kumar, general convener of the project.

Contrary to the reports that extensive volume of sand is being mined from the riverbed, a majority of the deposit contained just soil and mud. “Whatever removed from the riverbed is stacked on the banks and will be actioned by the government,” he added.

A preliminary analysis by the Irrigation department had earlier found that around 30,000 cubic metres of sand and mud will have to be removed to ensure a standard width along the stretch.