The Hindu Business Line : Shrinking Vembanadu Lake poses a threat

THE State Government's lukewarm approach towards the Vembanadu Lake with regard to the National Lake Conservation Programme (NLCP) might not only deprive Kerala of the project but also destroy the ecology of the wetland region.

The Union Ministry of Environments and Forests (MoEF), having realised the seriousness of the issue, had decided to include the Vembanadu backwaters in the NLCP for conservation on a 70:30 cost-sharing basis between the Central and State Governments.

The MoEF, through its letter dated July 4, 2003, had requested the State Government to submit a detailed project report, with firm costs for conservation of the backwaters along with the commitment to bear 30 per cent cost of the project, its operation and maintenance. But the Government is yet to send the report to the Ministry, Mr N.K. Sukumaran Nair, General Secretary, Pampa Conservation Society, alleged.

The attitude of the authorities towards the project is similar to that in the case of the Pampa Action Plan (PAP), for which the Centre had sanctioned 70 per cent of the cost of the first phase, involving an expenditure of Rs 18.46 crore, he told Business Line.

Mr Nair said PAP's implementation is a pre-requisite for implementing the Vembanadu Lake conservation project, as the confluence of the Pampa River is into the lake. He said the lake's conservation acquired top priority because it had shrunk by 37 per cent to 13,224 hectares from the original area of 36,329 hectares. Further, Mr Nair said the Vembanad-Kole wetlands had been identified as one of the Ramsar Treaty sites.

India is one of the signatories to the Ramsar Treaty, an international convention on wetlands organised by Unesco in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1981. The Ramsar Convention made it mandatory for the signatories to include wetland conservation in their national land use planning, he pointed out.

Vembanad-Kole wetland is the largest brackish and humid tropical wetland ecosystem on the country's southwest coast. It is fed by 10 rivers and is typical of large estuarine systems on the western coast, he said. It is also home to the third-largest waterfowl population in the country during winter. Over 90 species of resident birds and 50 species of migratory birds are found in the Vembanadu-Kole area.

The rice bowl of Kerala, Kuttanadu, is in this region and 53,000 hectares of land are under paddy cultivation. These wetlands, Mr Nair said, are either low formation above mean sea level or areas below mean sea level. These are mostly waterlogged.

The effect of domestic sewage on the ecology of the lagoon is significant, he said. The Kerala State Pollution Control Board recorded faecal coliform counts up to 31,000/100 ml in the Pampa River at Thakazhy in Kuttanadu in December 2001.

The sewage without proper treatment contains organic and inorganic pollutants, along with pathogenic micro-organisms responsible for various water-borne diseases. Besides, the wetlands support diverse fauna, including a large variety of fish, prawns and clams, reptiles and birds.

Acute potable water shortage is experienced in the Kuttanadu region throughout the year. Pollution in the lake water and the river waters flowing in to it has changed the colour of the water in the Vembanadu Lake. Most of the canals in the region are covered by thick layers of hyacinth, known as `African weeds' in local parlance, Mr Nair said.

Added to this is the dangerous impact of the Centrally sponsored Pampa-Achankoil-Vaipar Link Project (PAVLP) to be implemented by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), Mr Nair said. The PAVLP is one of the eight projects being prioritised for implementation in the first phase of NWDA's 30 projects envisaging interlinking of rivers.

Large-scale diversion of water from the upper catchment areas of these rivers would lead to an ecological and socio-economic disaster in downstream areas, especially in Kuttanadu. Saline water intrusion due to reduced fresh water flow into the sea would result in increase soil salinity, ruining the productivity of Kuttanadu. More than 60 per cent of the people in Kuttanadu subsist on agriculture.

Given this situation, conserving the wetland system acquires importance in the interest of the region's lakhs of inhabitants and for maintaining the ecological balance.

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