Desilting of TP Canal: culvert at Kaloor poses challenge

The culvert at Kaloor is proving to be a stiff challenge for the desilting works on the Thevara-Perandoor (TP) Canal as it gets clogged repeatedly with plastic waste.

The situation turns especially worse after every high tide and rain as huge quantities of waste from the side drains reach the culvert. Despite repeated cleaning, the situation recurs.

Trash skimmers

“Though not our brief, we do our part by cleaning up the culvert. It is for the local body concerned to adopt preventive mechanisms such as deploying trash skimmers at the mouth of the culvert to find a permanent solution. Else the problem will persist,” said Irrigation department sources.

The desilting of the culvert has been kept towards the end since it requires strong jetting. It is too narrow to either deploy men or machine lest risk a tragedy like the death of a sanitation worker engaged to clean up the Amayizhanjan Canal in Thiruvananthapuram last year.