A study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has found that faecal contamination levels are ‘too numerous to count’ (TNC) in water samples collected from select locations of the Thevara-Perandoor (TP) and Edappally canals in Ernakulam.
The agency was entrusted by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to conduct a feasibility study on developing a process package for the treatment of domestic sewage discharged into the Edappally and Thevara-Perandoor canals in Ernakulam and Patolithot and Valiyat canals in Kollam. The study was initiated after the National Green Tribunal directed the government to take steps to check the indiscriminate degradation of canals caused by illegal discharge of untreated wastewater into them.
The draft final report on the feasibility study found that faecal coliform was detected as TNC at four out of the eight sample locations in the Thevara-Perandoor canal. In two locations, the levels were recorded in the range of 2,510 CFU (colony-forming units)/100 ml to 3,000 CFU/100 ml. Faecal coliform was detected as TNC in one of the six sampling locations of the Edappally canal. In the other four locations, the levels varied from 201 CFU/100 ml to 20,022 CFU/100 ml.
