Beena says more visits to facility in capital could be arranged to clear apprehensions
Kozhikode
A day after returning from Thiruvananthapuram, having visited the Sewage Treatment Plant of the Government Medical College there, Mayor Beena Philip complained of total non-cooperation by the UDF councillors in the corporation in connection with the STP projects proposed for Kothi and Avikkal Thodu in the city.
The Mayor, along with 39 persons, some of whom were residents from the two localities, besides councillors and officials of the corporation, had visited the STP at Thiruvananthapuram with an aim to clear any doubts regarding the STP, its technology or environment-friendliness, in the backdrop of the strong protests at both Kothi and Avikkal Thodu against the projects. However, the UDF, as a whole, boycotted the invitation to be part of the trip, she told reporters here on Tuesday.
"We had invited anyone interested to join the trip to Thiruvananthapuram. The UDF councillors, who had agreed initially, refused to answer even phone calls, a day before the trip", she said. The Mayor said that the people from both the localities, who had visited the STP, were satisfied with its functioning as their apprehensions had been cleared. The plant follows the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) technology, which is proposed for the two STPs in the city as well.
She brushed aside the argument of the protest committees that the treated water would contaminate the water bodies into which it is disposed of. "Some people in the group inspected the quality of the water that came out of the STP and were convinced that it did not have any smell or harmful effect. Some even washed their faces with it", the Mayor said.
She said that the six-month-old STP, maintained well by the Kerala Water Authority, was yet to produce sludge waste. The area that used to stink earlier due to stagnant sewage water was now free of any smell and mosquitoes. Even the residents around the plant were satisfied with its functioning, the Mayor said.
The argument that there was not enough space in Kothi or Avikkal Thodu for the STPs or that the locations were not suitable, were also brushed aside by the Mayor on grounds that the STP they visited in Thiruvananthapuram successfully functioned in 37 cents of land and that the sites at Kothi and Avikkal were vaster than that.
She said the corporation was ready to carry out any number of such trips to clear the apprehensions of the protest committee.
