Puthanar, in the time of cholera

How black can black be? To find out, all you need to do is take a walk from Chackai to Thiruvallom or beyond by the banks of the city’s own very notorious Parvathy Puthanar. It is not only jet black in colour, but so absolutely still.

 Looking at the river, you realise that it is not only clear water that gives off a fine reflection, but still black surfaces do too. Reflected in the water we saw the beams of the flyover to the international terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram airport, separated from the filth by just a wall.

 Plastic sacks, hundreds of empty mineral water bottles, rum bottles, plastic cans, used bulbs, clothes, broomsticks, packing material, car tyres, broken bangles - you name it, the river has it all. Anything for the title - ‘River of Filth.’

And even in the time of cholera, neither the City Corporation nor the Sanitation Mission seems to be interested in clearing up the mess. ‘’How can you expect them to?,’’ asks Kesavan, a resident of Vallakkadavu, who retired as a peon from a nearby school.  ‘’They are at a loss as to how to handle the daily waste generated in the city. How can they clear up a river and where will they take the waste to? It is time for the public to act,’’ he said.

That the river has an E.coli count that is infinite is no news. Neither is the fact that the wells on the banks by this river also have an infinite amount of E.Coli. But the fact is that so much of human excreta and animal waste  are flowing through the river should be of concern to health officials, who are working hard to ward off a potential epidemic.

 While most of the river is weed-infested, the rest is full of waste - both of the degradable and non-degradable kind. That the houses on either side of the river let open the outlets from the toilets into this river, is as serious a problem as open defecation.

 The stinking river has been so much used as a dumping ground for anything from poultry to animal waste that it is not rare to see bloated animal intestines floating around like balloons. Some parts of the river have been levelled with waste and at Vallakkadavu, you can even find plantains planted in the river.