The situation remained tense at Aaviyil Thodu near Vellayil in Kozhikode city on Tuesday as the local people continued to block the beach road, preventing officials of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation from carrying out any sort of activities at the proposed site for a sewage treatment plant.
The people of Vellayil and Thoppayil wards, mostly fishermen, abandoned their work for the day to be part of the protest, vehemently opposing the STP project. They maintained that any measure of campaign by the corporation could not convince them about the need to construct the STP at Aaviyil Thodu.
Opinion survey
“The corporation did not bother to convince the people or conduct an opinion survey before going ahead with the project and procuring licences for it. Even the soil test, for which officials turned up on Monday, should have been done before the project site was finalised”, said K.C. Shobhita, Congress councillor, who was leading the protest on both days.
Soil test
The soil test is being carried out by a private agency hired by the corporation, the credibility of which is being questioned by the local people. They have repeatedly pointed out that the thickly populated Aaviyil region was unsuitable for the project and have voiced apprehensions about the kind of impact it would have on the environment and the nearby Vellayil harbour, besides the possibility of flooding following land filling for the project.
Meanwhile, Mayor Beena Philip in a press meet in the evening claimed that the apprehensions were baseless and explained the scientific premises of the project. She said that the corporation had made every attempt to convince the local people about the project, but only a few people with vested interests had turned against it and had sabotaged an explanation meeting at Vellayil harbour on January 7.
Water quality
The Mayor said that the project envisaged collecting all the sewage from the houses in the project area, which includes Vellayil, Thoppayil, and Moonnalinkal wards of the corporation. This would help in improving the ground water quality of the region and free it of water-borne diseases, for which it was regularly prone to. The project also aimed to keep up the health of people in the coastal region, and those who consumed the marine products by ensuring that the coastal area was clean and tidy. Providing a pollution free environment to beach goers and encouraging water reuse in areas where there was scarcity of water, were also counted as the benefits of the project.
The project has been proposed by the National Green Tribunal as part of the Kallai River renovation project and the progress of the project will be monitored by the Pollution Control Board every month, she said, adding that the corporation had procured all necessary clearances to carry out the project, including clearances from the PCB and KCZMA.