Traditional houseboats, operated manually, are set to make a comeback in Vembanad lake where scores of motorised houseboats ply. The new initiative, being launched by one of the operators in the sector, could contribute to efforts on reducing pollution levels in the waterbody, recognised as a Ramsar site by the U.N.
The move assumes significance amidst widespread complaints on pollution caused by motorised boats in the lake.
A houseboat, manoeuvred by using long poles of bamboo, is being readied for the launch. It will be inaugurated during the Nehru Trophy Boat Race, to be held at Punnamada on August 12, T.G. Reghu, a tourism operator, who claimed to have introduced the first houseboat in Alappuzha a quarter century ago, said. “There is demand for pollution-free, non-motorised, noiseless boats, steered in the conventional way,” he told The Hindu.
Though more than 1,000 houseboats operate in the lake, only about half of them are understood to have been registered with the authorities.
Several owners having more than one boat hoodwink authorities by producing same registration numbers for multiple units, running at different locations in the vast lake. Lack of adequate official monitoring mechanism has proved beneficial to the fake operators.
The needle of suspicion on dumping of waste material into the lake is directed at the erring boats as the septage collection system is limited to registered boats only.
“The houseboat licensing procedures are cumbersome,” says Mr. Reghu, who is an office-bearer of ATDC, a cooperative society of entrepreneurs.
“The houseboats have been brought under the Port administration, which is unfair. Instead, a canal-based administration is required. The previous records of septage removal are required for the boats to make use of the periodic waste disposal facility available at Kainakari in Kuttanad and Kumarakom in Kottayam. Such rules are unnecessary and amount to distancing the operators from the authorised channels.”
Several studies have pointed to a high level of pollution in the lake. A study on pollution in Vembanad ecosystem, conducted by E.V. Ramasamy, Director, School of Environmental Sciences, MG University, in association with S. Sruthy, research fellow, had been published in the international journal ‘Elsevier’. The study reported the ubiquitous presence of microplastic particles (MPs) in the sediments of Vembanad lake and estuary.
“The morphology of the MPs observed in this study suggests that their origin from fragmentation of larger plastic debris indicating the use and disposal of plastics as their ultimate origin. Therefore, controlling MPs/plastics at the source is the option to be explored seriously, because, once MPs are released into the environment there is much little (that) can be done to limit their distribution and impacts,” the report said.