2011 Abstract Volume - World Water Week

very high degree and clogged due to solid waste especially plastics and construction debris. The cityhas a large network of area drains, which act as major storm water receivers. There is no regular patternfor this and lies along small roads and bye lines. The area drains are absent in many of the areasespecially in areas with urban proliferation, leading to serious water logging in the monsoon season.Additionally, only about 5 percent of the city is sewered (and part of this network is dysfunctional);the City generates about 190 MLD of sewage, but only has a 4.45 MLD treatment facility. Sinceonly 5% of the city is covered by the existing sewerage network, and considering the fact that almostevery household excepting a few in certain slum areas have a toilet, 95% of the city is dependent uponsome form of on-site sanitation facility. Typically, wastewater from households is routed to a septictank. Since the water table is so high in Kochi, the soak pits connected to septic tanks are ineffective.Due to this, many households have directly connected their septic tanks to nearby drains and canals.With no clear institutional responsibility of on-site sanitation, this sector is virtually unregulated,and management of septage is a grey area. Transportation and dumping is a huge problem, as landis scarce and there is no designated area for septage disposal. As a result, septage is usually illegallydumped in any open space, typically in some type of water body.Kochi is also a coastal settlement interspersed with backwater systems inseparably linked with wetlandsof Vembanad estuary. Large-scale reclamation of land has reduced the area occupied by waterbodies, putting a strain on the water resources as well as ecological balance of the region. The humanintervention in the Vembanad Lake area, reclamation of wetlands for agriculture, development of theKochi harbour and industries north of the estuary, development of hydraulic barriers during 1976-82 and other such anthropogenic activities have lead to pollution and declining bio-resources of theestuary. The exchange volume of the estuary has also reduced from 125 Mm 3 /tidal cycle during 1960to 35 Mm 3 /tidal cycle during 1985. The eutrophication imposed severe stress on grazing organisms(zooplankton) and ultimately has resulted in the disappearance of many endemic species of fishesfrom the estuary.As such, this paper aims to present the multiple and three-dimensional facets of the water and sanitationrelated complexities in the City of Kochi, the largest urban agglomeration in Kerala, and thestate’s commercial capital, and then present implications for policy, planning and research.44 Workshop 1: Cities in a 3-D Landscape Perspective – Hidden Risks