Abatement Drive - Puzhakkal River, Thrissur

"Ninety seven percent of the world water cover is salty and definitely not potable and out of the three percent, two percent is frozen as ice caps in the poles and the interesting and sad fact is that all of humanity till date have been depending on that meagre one percent of freshwater. It is this one percent that we abuse and use like there’s no tomorrow. Water bodies are humanity’s lifeline and with the above scary statistics in consideration we might all reach day zero in the near future"

The kind of feeling we all have when our cell phones is at one percent charge is disturbing, let that concern be reflected in saving this useful one percent for a possible future.

Pollution abatement project, a joint venture of the Water Resource Department,  Government of Kerala in association with  engineering colleges are working towards identifying various polluted rivers, their water quality testing, pollution abatement and future aspects regarding keeping its sanctity. FISAT Angamaly teamed up with the Irrigation Department, Thrissur to identify the pollution levels in the Puzhakal river. Considering the emergency of the matter, weekly meetings of officials were held to discuss the strategy and to know the gravity of the situation. One seminar was specifically held for all the officials and participating students across the state to enlighten everyone about the water testing and related procedures and also gave an insight into this project.

This blog is our experience of being a part of this wonderful project.

DAY-1 (23^rd January 2021)

So with all the base arrangements in place, each team across the state set out to work. Phase one was reconnaissance, to determine the stretches of each river and the testing points which will later be put to test. FISAT civil engineering department faculty and students set out for this task on 23 January 2021. It was a fun and daunting task to walk in the scorching afternoon heat along long stretches of the river. The whole team was split into smaller ones and later broke into examining different stretches. Google My maps was used to mark different sampling points and all the teams took pictures which were all added to the whatsapp group made for the sake of this project. After this day, reconnaissance of the various sampling points was done. The team had lunch after a tiring day and curtain was down for the day’s work.

DAY-2 (2^nd February 2021)

The second phase of the tie up project between the WRD govt of kerala and dept of civil engineering fisat started. The day was full of surprises that had both ups and downs as a civil engineering student and also as an individual. I was so excited to visit the site to get a feel about how the field visits and field works in civil engineering dept requires. We had a complete path shown by our HOD and faculty members on how to proceed and what all factors to take care about. Jawahar sir, an environmental engineer was the lead mentor who knew the process in depth and also gave us all technical instructions from A-Z. Initially it was planned to collect samples from 5 different pre-defined spots for the versatility of the conditions and also to get a definitive idea on what all pollutants and chemical compositions are present in the river water. The joint visit was conducted by the executive engineer of the irrigation dept of Thrissur Dist. The visit started after a brief primary discussion with the concerned officials.The visit gave us immense idea on how the practical world works and what measures are required to the smooth functioning of the river systems. There was an accompanying officer from the irrigation department who actively took part in the sample collection process.

Spot 1 (MLA Road).

This  spot was the very first spot for the sample collection of the river water and it was successfully done by a very positive spirit which also was a motivation for us. The Colour of the river water varied from grey to black.

Spot 2 (Kuringkal canal).

This was the second spot of the venture and the colour of the river water was pale yellow and there was no odour.

Spot 3 (Behind Food corp. INDIA)

This was the last spot for the sample collection for the day as we were running behind the schedule.

The colour of the river again varied from grey to blackish with a lot of floating object and there was both ammoniacal and rotten egg smell from the sample. 

After the successful collection of 3 samples from the above mentioned spots, now it was time for having lunch. After a very satisfying lunch it was decided that the remaining spot sample will be collected in the coming session as there was a time constraint so we submitted the collected samples in the Lab and returned to our campus.

                                 

DAY-3 (6^th February)

A bigger task was in hand this time, seven points had to be sampled today and we had only one day. Comparing last day’s progress we felt that was near to being impossible, but we had the a clear idea and experience of the procedures so we could keep cool throughout the visit and speed up the process.  This time there was three students and two faculty from civil department. We packed all the necessary tools for sampling and loaded that to two cars. Now the surprising part of the journey was that our HOD just gave the keys of his car and told “ DRIVE”. Literally we didn’t see that coming and hence we three students took turns and took the wheel. This part really made our day but the main part of the project was yet to be done. We went straight to the Thrissur irrigation dept for further directives for the day and zoooom we went to the prescribed points.

Sampling was seamless and this time we never felt like losing track or making mistakes hence we went from point to point in no time with less errors. This proved the worth of experience be it any domain.

We completed five points before having lunch which was indeed a great achievement for all and then drove back to the irrigation office to give the samples since we ran out of space to store. 

Lunch was at combonation a restaurant famous for providing food in earthern cutlery. Had a wholesome meal and set off to the last two spots left for the day. The sixth spot was situated in a scenic setting but taking the sample was a daunting task. Like a saviour, a fisherman named GOPI came into the scene and helped us to get the required amount of water from the river. A pure coincidence that saved time and the process.

The final sample was taken from the puzhakal bridge which brought down the curtain to this streak of sampling. We all felt a sense of calmness and victory that engulfed us all of a sudden. With a free spirit we all went back to the irrigation office to hand over the final samples.

Unni sir took a victory selfie to mark the end of a tiring and momentous day. Had some cool drinks and set the car engines straight back to college. Looking back into the water qualities we saw in the process, the quality kept increasing when we went to the outskirts of Thrissur city which is not a surprise. Much of this was semi clean potable water. On the way back we stopped for some snacks and drink on the highway and on the way to college had some humbling chit chat with Unni sir. Reached college at 8 pm and finally handed over the car over to Unni sir at last. Here are the short brief of all the samples taken.

Spot 4

This was the starting point of the second phase of the sample collecting process. In this very spot the the river water was clear and odourless.

Spot 5

At this spot the river water was stagnant and there was odour of H2s in the very sample.

Spot 6

At this point the water was slow flowing and not stagnant. The water was clear and one point to be noted that there was few particles floating in it and it exhibited organic decaying smell.

Spot 7

The river water at this point was flowing and it had no odour. It had aquatic life and it was clean and had moderate turbide.

Spot 8

This spot had a few challenges waiting for us as the bridge was quite high and unni sir had to sacrifice his spectacles in the collection process but after few moments we were able to collect water from the source and it had algae growth, turbid water, floating objects and the water was flowing.

Spot 9

This place was the place where collecting the sample from the middle of the river seemed almost impossible then gopi the fisherman came forward to help us with his boat, keeping his usual business at a halt for few minutes and helped us collecting the sample and yes that was a success. The water was flowing, it supported aquatic life, the water was clear and it also attracted birds.

Spot 10 

This spot was the last spot for the project and after collecting the sample from there we along with Unni sir and Jawahar sir went to the irrigation dept to submit the samples for testing. The stretch had oil, invasive aquatic plantation, floating materials, and the water was stagnant.

Gokul Ajith, Sinchan Dutta, S3 CE, FISAT