Fr Peelianickal alleged that lack of political will on the one hand and political expediency on the other hand, irrespective of the political combinations ruling the State, has been depriving the State of such Centrally sponsored projects beneficial to the people, environment, ecology and the economy.

He said that most of the components in the Swaminathan Committee package fall under these categories and what the State Government had to do is to prepare component-wise detailed project reports realistically and convincingly and submit them to the relevant Union Ministries/ departments. Thus, the financial involvement of the State Government would be limited, he said.

According to Fr Peelianickal, the package has emphasised the urgent need for arresting pollution in the Pampa river by implementing the PAP and conservation of Vembanad Lake as a prerequisite for the overall welfare of the region and its people.

Around 40 per cent of Kerala’s rice production is from Kuttanad. Thearea under paddy in this region has already shrunk to around 37,000hectares from 55,000. Being a low lying area only single crop iscultivated during October-March.Besides, as the land is situated 2.5 meters below the Mean Sea Level(MSL) paddy cultivation here is like a gambling between the twomonsoons -southwest and northeast. In order to regulate the flood,water flow through the rivers especially, Pampa, Manimala, Anchenkoviland Meenachil is to be regulated, he said. Unscientific laying ofroads, blockades in the Alapuzha- Changanacherry canal andconstructions have also become the major causes for floods in theregion, he pointed out.The deteriorating situation in Kuttanadu region, where the vastexpanse of the lake is located, is the net result of the degradationand destruction of the environment. He said that the shrinkage ofVembanad Lake as a result of land reclamation had been the mostimportant environmental consequence of various human interventions.The water carrying capacity of the system has been reduced to anabysmal 0.6 km3 from 2.4 km3 (Km3 = cubic kilometre).According to a study by the SWRDM the area of Vembanad lake, which was36,329 hectare in 1834 has shrunk to 12,504 ha in 1984. The draft ofthe lake that was 6.7 metre reduced to 4.4 metre. The water holdingcapacity of the lake declined from 2.449 cubic km to 0.559 cubic km.Boat transport in several parts of the lake has become difficultfollowing accumulation of silt in most of the canals. The silt flowthrough the rivers, Meenachel, Manimala, Pampa and Achankoil, into thelake is estimated at 96,000 tonne a year.It is high time that the authorities evolved a sustainable action planto conserve the Vembanad Wet Land system, which was designated inNovember 2002 as Ramsar Site in India, Mr N.K. Sukumaran Nair, GeneralSecretary, Pampa Parirakshana Samithi, an NGO fighting for itsconservation, told Business Line.