Depleting water resources in Thalassery, Kerala: Huge effort is required to address water supply and sewerage handling issues

Author : Fazal Maliyakkal

I would like to share my big concern on the depleting water source in my town. Our only and precious water source which is open well is heavily abused by unsustainable and unscientific approach, entirely due to the lack of vision of the local government, as there are absolutely no plans, whatsoever to cater for this approaching disaster.

I am a native of Thalassery (in Kerala state), where every single home is depending on well water for all their daily water needs. The municipality water supply system never worked efficiently since it was established (more than 35 years at least), hence people in Thalassery don’t consider this facility to exist at all.

As usual about cities in Kerala, Thalassery is also highly urbanized, with no planned public utility systems and a very high per capita water usage, which makes both the water supply and sewerage handling disastrous. People mostly live in individual homes build in 5-8 cents, and the distance between septic tank (usually only soak pit) and well is often less than 4 meters within the plot. The distance between well and soak pit of the adjacent plot is often as close as 1m or less at many instances due lack of awareness of consequences and limited options with high land value. The well water in the entire town tastes and smells very bad and clearly indicates the bacteriological contamination (E coli or whatsoever) from sewage and from other sources. People's lack of awareness on the health hazards and their lack of awareness on the moral rights on such issues are a clear indication of the huge effort that is required to address this very critical issue.

I am 100% sure that if a chemical analysis is carried out in the wells in the city, definitely the results obtained will show that the people are drinking non potable water and this is gradually affecting their health and the future generation (ie. during pregnancy)

I am not a specialist in water resources, and my views and concerns are purely based on my own experience as an ordinary resident of this town. However, I have done some desk top research and some of the useful publications are attached separately including following link:

'85% wells contaminated', Deccan Chronicle : http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/kochi/%E2%80%9885-wells-contaminated%E2%80%99-579