West Kochi STP project remains a non-starter

₹166-crore CSML plan draws stiff opposition from local residents

The ₹166-crore state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant (STP) project that Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) has envisaged near the Fort Kochi Taluk Hospital to scientifically treat sewage from divisions 1 to 5 of the Kochi Corporation is in doldrums owing to stiff opposition from local residents. It is despite the unusually high prevalence of water- and air-borne diseases in the area spread over 2.70 sq.km, which includes heritage tourism locales in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Over 42,000 people live in the densely populated area. Grey water and sullage from septic tanks and pits are discharged into roadside stormwater drains, resulting in slow-moving canals and sea, posing a public health hazard and degradation of environment. It is because West Kochi never had a piped sewerage and centralised treatment system. It was in such a perilous situation that a 6.5-million-litre-per-day (mld) treatment plan was mooted in a 45-cent vacant area near the 10-metre-wide Kalvathy canal, whose width too could be used by covering it with a concrete structure, CSML sources said.