Kerala HC cites urgent need to clean canals filled with garbage

Kerala High Court warns of potential incidents like canal drowning in Thiruvananthapuram in Kochi due to garbage dumping.

Incidents like the one in which a contract worker who was engaged to clean a canal drowned in a waterbody in Thiruvananthapuram could occur in Kochi too if the civic agencies fail to take steps to prevent dumping of garbage in canals, the Kerala High Court has warned.

Members of the public must desist from dumping garbage in waterbodies, the court said. On its part, the Railways submitted that they would act in coordination with a High Court-supervised committee that had been constituted in this regard. They said a culvert at Kammatipadam would be rebuilt.

The court observed that little had been done, although it had issued many orders on the need to declog railway culverts. The Railways must take steps to declog or, if need be, rebuild other culverts as well. The accumulation of slush in drains was made worse by dumping of garbage, and this hampered water flow, the court said and asked how many cases had been registered against those who dumped garbage into the Perandoor canal and other waterbodies in the city.

The court also took note of garbage getting piled up near the rainbow bridge at Marine Drive and said that cleaning of canals gained impetus only after interventions by the court, saving most vulnerable areas in the city from inundation. But any callousness would turn the tables very easily, it said.

The amici curiae cited lack of coordination as one of the reasons why the larger issues on the plight of canals remained unanswered. A city like Kochi, which is below the sea level, requires to be handled very carefully, the court said.

The Kochi Corporation submitted that more suction-cum-jetting machines would be procured to clean drains. On the lack of coordination, the court said the committee headed by the District Collector must ensure that necessary steps were taken without delay.