The Congress has threatened to launch a people’s protest amid the election campaign against the State government’s alleged apathy and lack of vision in addressing the ever-worsening drinking water shortage in Ernakulam, including Kochi city.
Briefing the media in Kochi on March 30 (Saturday), Hibi Eden, MP, and MLAs T.J. Vinod and Uma Thomas raised three critical issues — the government’s alleged disregard in pursuing a 190 MLD plant in Aluva to improve drinking water supply conceived during the tenure of the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government, absence of projects to rejuvenate water sources, and the alleged failure on the part of the authorities in deploying water tankers in areas affected by water shortage.
Mr. Eden alleged that the government had completely abandoned the proposed 190 MLD plant while drawing parallels with its enthusiasm for supplying 45 MLD water to Kinfra from the Periyar despite the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and the Irrigation department initially vouching that the Periyar did not have enough water for supply to Kinfra. Such a critical project, the cost of which has escalated from the original ₹232 crore to over ₹500 crore owing to the delay, has neither figured in the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) projects worth crores nor the Asian Development Bank project.
