Rain fails to rejuvenate Sasthamcotta Lake

KOLLAM: Heavy rain that lashed the district for several days in June and July has virtually had no impact on the water level in the Sasthamcotta fresh water lake.

The lake, listed as a Ramsar site, remains shrunken.

This backs the theory expressed by environmental activists and the findings of a recent study sponsored by the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) that it is not rain but underground springs fed by aquifer links from the Kallada river that are the main source of water for the lake.

The eco activists and the CESS study had pointed out that indiscriminate sand-mining in the Kallada river and mining of sand and clay around the lake in areas coming under the West Kallada panchayat have had an adverse effect on the aquifer links between the lake and the river and this was causing the lake to shrink.

With the lake beginning to shrink at an alarming rate earlier this year, environmental activists staged an indefinite agitation calling for measures to stop the authorised sand-mining around the lake and effective measures to protect the lake.

A high-level meeting, presided over by Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran and attended by Forest Minister Benoy Viswom, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran and Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, was held on May 12 to address the issue.

The meeting decided to implement various measures, including a complete ban on sand-mining in the West Kallada panchayat area, by July 15 to protect the lake. The police kept vigil in the area round the clock and this brought the mining activity to a stop. However, the police vigil was later withdrawn and this saw a spurt in the mining activity.

Environmental activist Odanavattam Vijayaprakash alleged that the police vigil was withdrawn under political pressure. The police, however, said the vigil was withdrawn owing to shortage of personnel.

In the interim as part of the high-level meeting's decision to implement measures to protect the lake, the State Pollution Control Board (PCB) issued a notification on June 9 banning nine activities that pollute the lake. The ban orders were issued with immediate effect.The activities banned include bathing and washing of clothes and vehicles in the lake, discharge of waste water from hotels and other establishments through drains that lead to the lake, discharge of sewage into it, mining of sand, laterite and clay within 500 metres of the lake and agricultural activity within 100 metres.

Mr. Vijayaprakash alleged that despite the PCB ban, these activities were on in full swing. He said that block number 11 of the West Kallada panchayat, which is close to the lake and where heavy sand-mining takes place, had not been covered by the ban. The demand for constituting a statutory authority for the lake's protection continued to be ignored, he said.

Source:The Hindu, 2-8-2010