Industrial effluents polluting near-shore waters off Veli coast

  The near-shore waters off the Veli coast are heavily polluted by industrial effluents and sewage, making them unfit for survival of marine life, the State of Environment Report-Kerala 2007 says.The report, published by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, is based on a long-term survey of the coastal and marine environment in Kerala under the Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMAPS) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.The report states that the aquatic environment in the near-shore region is endangered by the presence of heavy metals in industrial effluents.The problem has been observed in Veli and the Kochi industrial belt.
The survey notes that the Travancore Titanium Products (TTP) factory at Kochuveli is the primary source of industrial pollution in the region. The effluents containing sulphuric acid, iron, residual titanium dioxide and traces of silica are released into the sea through an open drain at the rate of 6,000 cubic metres a day.The seawater samples collected by a research vessel revealed that constant exposure to high acidity, very low dissolved oxygen and suspended particulate matter had an impact on organic life in the marine environment off Veli.The near-shore region was found to be devoid of fish species. Primary productivity of marine species showed a marked decrease. The worst pollution is up to 5 km from the coast.While acidic effluents from the TTP were evident in the near-shore areas, high domestic sewage inflow was recorded from the Aakulam lake and the Poonthura coast.The report recommends the establishment of treatment plants to handle industrial effluents and sewage.Further south at Vizhinjam, the survey recorded high sewage input from the dense human settlement on the coast.Veli and Kochi have been included as high risk regions on the basis of pollution levels.
The report observes that the pollution caused by discharge of untreated sewage into water bodies had reached an alarming situation. It is estimated that organic matter exerting a biological oxygen demand of 630 tonnes a day is finding its way into the marine environment.The survey estimates that 1,04,536 cubic metres of treated effluents are also being discharged into the backwaters or the sea in the coastal areas of the State.At Kochi, both the northern and southern arms of the Vembanad lake receive wastewater from industries. The lake is also polluted by domestic sewage, urban waste, pesticide and fertilizer residue from farms, oil spillage and effluents from Kochi refineries, Kochi port and the caprolactum plant of FACT.The other sampling stations covered under the Comaps programme include Paravur, Neendakara, Kayamkulam, Alappuzha, Ponnani, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod.
The survey shows that increased sewage dumping is a major cause for pollution of the near-shore waters of the southwest coast.The heavy traffic of fishing boats at Neendakara is responsible for the high total oil content near the harbour mouth.The concentration of heavy metals is found to be high in the Kochi region, owing to the discharge of effluents from the Eloor industrial belt. High sewage discharge is reported from the Kochi Corporation area.Very high municipal sewage discharge has been observed at Kozhikode and Kannur.
The Hindu, sep 12