Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urgently called for an online meeting on July 18 to address the pressing issue of flooding caused by urban waste and debris clogging stormwater drains and canals in the capital city.
In a proactive move, which the Opposition termed as “belated”, the Kerala government has identified the urban refuse obstructing the segment of the Amayizhanjan Canal that passed under the Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station as the central contributor to the chronic flooding in the Thampanoor area.
The death of a sanitation worker while attempting to clear the Amayizhanjan Canal of trash and discarded waste had brought the city’s choked-up canals and stormwater drains under a harsh spotlight. It also triggered a public outcry and incited a war of words between the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and the Railway authorities.
Mr. Vijayan has also invited the Divisional Manager, Railways, and the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor to attend the top-level ministerial meeting.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan told reporters in Wayanad that the government had woken up to the problem tardily.
He said plastic waste and urban litter asphyxiating urban canals were a public health risk and an eyesore. The government’s failure to restore natural drainage resulted in recurrent floods. Thiruvananthapuram was particularly hard hit. Thousands of ordinary working-class families living on the edge of the capital city’s canals were most at risk from flooding, pollution, water and vector-borne diseases.
He alleged that Minister for Local Self-Governments M.B. Rajesh seemed least concerned. “Mr. Rajesh has adopted the tone of an authoritarian and criticised the Opposition for flagging the pressing environmental and public health issue in the Assembly and outside,” he said.
Mr. Satheesan said the government’s failure to maintain canals, waterways, and stormwater drains properly has exponentially worsened Thiruvananthapuram’s flooding problem. He said administrative apathy has rendered the capital’s waterways “toxically and lethally polluted.”
Outbreak of diseases
Mr. Satheesan also accused Health Minister Veena George of dismissing vector and water-borne diseases sweeping across Kerala. “Ms. George says the increase in fever, cholera, dengue, and other cases is an annual phenomenon and should abate when the rainy season recedes,” he said.
He said apathy towards patients, decaying infrastructure, and a lack of medicines were the hallmarks of most public hospitals in the State. “However, the Minister seems least concerned,” he added.
