Residents voice concern as sand mining in Alappuzha's Thotappally spillway threatens houses

Ambalappuzha: Continuous sand mining from the Thottapally spillway canal using heavy machinery poses threat to the nearby houses and buildings. Cracks have formed on the walls of the buildings, raising concerns among the residents and owners.
Meanwhile, people of the locality have been complaining that many of them suffer from suffocation and other health difficulties due to the operation of machinery. Some of them had even sought treatment at the hospital.

The depth of the water near the spillway bridge hasn’t increased despite mining sand from the canal. Meanwhile, the water flowing from the eastern hills gets accumulated near the spillway shutter. Sand mining is done up to 10 metres deep in the canal, close to the houses and buildings.

Besides, heavy vehicles that are hired to transport the mined sand speed through the panchayat road causing tremors on the houses. The local residents have been urging to stop sand mining from the canal to protect their homes and buildings.

They have also formed a spillway sand mining prevention samiti to raise their issues. K Pradeep is the president of this samiti while G Madhukumar and S Prakash are the secretary and treasurer respectively.