Apartment demolition at Maradu impacted Vembanad water quality, say researchers

High pH value recorded in water samples collected, indicating stress on living organisms

The demolition of apartments in Maradu has significantly impacted the water quality and aquatic life of the Vembanad lake, though for a short period, as huge quantities of debris were dumped into the waterbody, according to a scientific analysis. According to the recently published research paper, ‘Citizen science tools reveal changes in estuarine water quality following demolition of buildings’, the water had turned alkaline after “debris from the first Alfa Serene Tower, weighing around 76,000 tonnes, was made to fall into the backwaters during the second phase of the blast to protect the nearby buildings from physical and structural damage and other associated causalities”. High pH value was recorded in the water samples collected from the area, which indicated stress on living organisms. The pH value, which remained high for around five weeks after the demolition, came down significantly, thus saving the lake ecosystem, said Nandini Menon, the lead author of the paper and a senior scientist of Nansen Environmental Research Centre India, Kochi.