Local bodies seek urgent desilting of Periyar to curb flooding
Annual monsoon flooding in Varappuzha, Kerala, prompts protests due to authorities' failure to desilt the Periyar river, drastically reducing its depth and carrying capacity, impacting local communities and fish stocks.
Annual monsoon flooding in Varappuzha, Kerala, prompts protests due to authorities' failure to desilt the Periyar river, drastically reducing its depth and carrying capacity, impacting local communities and fish stocks.
Annual monsoon flooding in Varappuzha, Kerala, prompts protests due to authorities' failure to desilt the Periyar river, drastically reducing its depth and carrying capacity, impacting local communities and fish stocks.
Varappuzha: With monsoon flooding now an annual reality along the lower Periyar, protests are growing over the failure of authorities in desilting the river and restoring its carrying capacity.
Every year as the southwest monsoon gathers strength, the Periyar routinely breaches its banks, inundating homes and homesteads along its course. Scientific studies have identified years of unchecked siltation, which has drastically reduced the river's depth, as one of the principal reasons for the recurring floods.
Siltation had begun even before the 2018 floods, but the disaster made matters far worse. Floodwaters deposited vast quantities of mud, sand and debris on the riverbed, leaving the Periyar heavily silted. The worst impact is now seen along the Eloor–Varapuzha–Mulavukad stretch, where the river has lost much of its natural depth and carrying capacity.
The waterbody, once around 30 feet deep in many places, is now barely two feet deep at several locations. In Chennur, Cheriyathuruthu and Kadamakkudy, water flows only through the middle of the channel during low tide, exposing large portions of the riverbed. Fisherfolk say the drastic reduction in depth has also depleted fish stocks.
The administrations of Kadamakkudy, Varapuzha, Mulavukad and Cheranalloor panchayats have repeatedly petitioned the authorities to remove the accumulated silt, but little has changed. M S Antony, president of the Kadamakkudy grama panchayat, said successive representations to the departments concerned have failed to elicit any concrete action.
Officials have cited the lack of suitable sites to dump the dredged silt and sand as the biggest hurdle to undertaking desilting. The panchayats, however, have offered to identify suitable sites for dumping the dredged material and suggested that the recovered sand could be put to use in National Highway construction.
The Kadamakkudy panchayat has submitted a memorandum to the district administration, urging it to take up desilting at the earliest and restore the Periyar's natural depth and flow before the next monsoon.