It has been more than six months since residents around the site of the proposed sewage treatment plant (STP) at Kozhikode Corporation’s Avikal Thodoo started fighting against the project. Several attempts by the corporation officials to bring him on board have failed.
On the other hand, the corporation is desperate to go ahead with the project as the due date for completion of projects under the first phase of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) is March 2023.
Kozhikode Corporation is planning two STPs – one at Avikkal (7 MLD) and the other at Kothi (6 MLD) at a cost of ₹ 139.5 crore. The trouble began when the locals in both fishing villages realized how close the proposed sites were for their living. He demanded that the corporation should take it to a less populated area.
The local protest committee in Kothi managed to get an order from the Kerala High Court, asking the corporation to maintain status quo. The people of Avikal, who were convinced that the STP would stink and pollute the water in the nearby Vellayil fishing port, began a protest which eventually turned violent.
“The corporation is trying to treat the liquid waste from the adjoining apartment complexes at our expense. We will be missed. And how can we assure ourselves that the plant will be maintained properly when the corporation is not able to maintain even the public toilets properly? Avikal asks Dawood T, the chairman of the anti-STP protest committee.
The protesters say that the proposed site is an encroached part of the Avikal Canal, which is full of garbage and, therefore, legally unfit for any kind of construction.
The Corporation has tried to explain that the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) technology being used for the two STPs is foolproof and there is no possibility of any pollution from it. The maintenance of the STP is being entrusted to the construction agencies, following which the corporation is planning to train the people of the area to do the same.
Under the aegis of Kozhikode Corporation, the work of cleaning Avikkal Thodo near Vellayil in Kozhikode city is going on. Despite the local people’s non-cooperation against the proposed sewage treatment plant project here, good progress has been made in the cleaning which started at the beginning of the month. Due to the accumulation of garbage in the canal passing through four wards of the corporation, water has been continuously filling in the surrounding areas for the last few years. , photo credit: K Ragesh
“Kothi and Avikal could be the default locations for STPs in Kozhikode as the AMRUT guidelines suggest the most densely populated and most polluted parts of the city for such projects. We are not in a position to shift them now as the projects have been approved by the state,” said the corporation’s health standing committee chairman S. Jayshree says.
The issue took a political turn when the United Democratic Front joined the protesters, claiming that their fears were real. The participation of political parties such as the Social Democratic Party of India, an allegedly radical Islamist organisation, in the protest committee and the visit of some people with Maoist links at the protest site has given a political shape to the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). weapon against protest