Impact of Chamravattam Regulator Cum Bridge on Bharathapuzha River and Adjacent Areas

Objective: The present study deals with the impact of Chamaravattam RCB, Malappuram District, Kerala over Bharathapuzha River with the specific objectives of determining the impact on water quality and quantity.

Methods: Water samples are collected from the eight upstream areas of the Bharathapuzha River which are under the influence of Chamaravattam RCB for analyzing the elemental concentration, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, total coliform and E.coli. Field survey and personal interactions are conducted in both upstream and downstream areas of Chamaravattam RCB and collected information regarding water quality, crop yield, ground water table, salinity intrusion and socio-economic status.

Findings: The main objectives of the RCB are increase in ground water table, increase in agricultural production, improved transportation, prevention of saline water intrusion and communication facilities.The result of the study reveals that even though Chamaravattam RCB has numerous positive impacts, it at the same time negatively affected the quality of water due to the restriction of natural flushing action of the river. A layer of water at upstream of RCB becomes stagnant and pollutants accumulate. Due to this, total coliforms and E.coli counts of water are much higher than the desired values and amount of dissolved oxygen in water gets reduced. The elemental concentration of the water samples are also out of range. In downstream area salinity balance is negatively affected and even well water became saline. All this made Bharathapuzha River water out of consumable quality. Bharathapuzha River, a fast becoming source of health hazards for the people of several panchayats and municipalities on its bank and thereby it adversely affect the economy of the people.

Improvements: The result of the present study insists the necessity of a thorough study to uptake remedial measures and overcome these negative impacts.