Chittur in Palakkad district, reeling under severe drinking water shortage and irrigation problems in farmlands, is perhaps the hottest and worst drought-hit taluk in Kerala but that has not stopped the authorities of the Kozhinjampara Grama Panchayat in the taluk from permitting an upcoming fruit juice company to guzzle 450,000 litres of scarce groundwater per day.
The civic body’s decision is set to trigger intense protests by the people of Kozhinjampara and adjacent panchayats which, as per indications available, could become as intense as the long struggle the people of Plachimada in the same taluk had staged leading to the closure of the Coca-Cola factory there.
The Kozhinjampara Panchayat council has permitted the company to pump scarce groundwater using bore wells when the groundwater table is dipping in the district by the day and the people are on agitation for drinking water. For example, the people of Kozhinjampara and three adjacent panchayats observed a daylong shutdown demanding drinking water on Friday.
As per the application the ABT Fruit Juice company reportedly submitted on March 26 to the Kozhinjampara Panchayat Council, it needed plenty of groundwater for the production of fruit juices and packaged drinking water at the Sree Maha Bhagavati Mills there which was presently out of function.
The company sought permission for pumping 4.5 lakh litres of water per day using bore well fitted with a 728-HP motor pump. The continuing water woes of the people in the locality or the fact that Chittur taluk had lost paddy farmed in over 15,000 hectares due to lack of irrigation last season did not prevent the council from approving the firm’s request unanimously.
Though the Panchayat authorities are feigning ignorance of the development, sources said that the company had requested the Panchayat for permission for taking power connection for running the giant motor pump and the same had been granted. The company has so far refused to respond to reports regarding this.
Hydrologists and farmers say that such large-scale extraction of groundwater in a drought-hit area like Kozhinjampara is sure to turn the region into a desert-like terrain within a few years as it had happened in Plachimada due to the continuous extraction of groundwater by the Hindustan Coca-Cola Company limited.
“The water the fruit juice company is going to extract per day from Kozhinjampara is more than the total water the people of four panchayats in the region want for drinking and other purposes. We have seen how this senseless water extraction can spell disaster for an entire region in the case of the Coke factory in Plachimada,” said Narayanan Nair, a farmer in Chittur.