Survey to find source of canal pollution

A Summer School on ‘Rejuvenation of Alappuzha canals through Decentralised Solid and Liquid Waste Management Strategies’ organised jointly by the Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) concluded here on Friday. The school was held in two batches, from May 6 to 12 and May 19 to 25. A multidisciplinary exercise was conducted to find solutions to the canal pollution in Alappuzha. The workshop was attended by around 350 students of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Architecture/Planning and Social Sciences from educational institutions across India.

A preliminary report based on a survey conducted by the students was released by project coordinator N.C. Narayanan. The report details the present state of the canals in Alappuzha and the source of pollution. It also reveals that 93% of wells in the municipality were found to have been polluted by E.coli bacteria.

The Summer School follows a Winter School conducted from November 29 to December 5, 2017 in Alappuzha. As many as 37 students of IIT, Bombay, and SCMS College of Engineering and Technology were given training on smart tools to collect and collate relevant data along with mapping exercises to be represented on the GIS platform in the Winter School.