The summer showers that have cooled the city have also triggered pollution of the river Kadambrayar, a major freshwater source of the district , from the leachate of the defunct Brahmapuram solid waste treatment plant.
Tripunithura, Maradu, Thrikkakkara and several other panchayats are receiving highly contaminated water as a result.
While the people suffer, the State Pollution Control Board ,which had promised to come up with a comprehensive action plan to clean the river, has done nothing so far to check the contamination.
Ask chairman of the pollution control board, K. Sajeevan, and he says pollution of the river can be prevented only when the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant is modernised. He, however, claims the drinking water is safe as its source is downstream of the river.
But the concerned people of Brahmapuram have filed a petition in the High Court demanding action to clean the river .
“Kadambrayar, which was once a freshwater source has turned into a highly polluted river.
Most of the wells and other drinking water sources in the area too have been polluted,” regrets Abdul Rasheed of the Malinya Nikshepa Virudha Samara Samithi, which blames the leaks from the waste treatment plant into the river during the rain on faults in its construction.