Around 20km from Kochi lies the metro city's topmost tech destination, InfoPark, at Kakkanad. Home to over 260 companies and more than 45,000 employees, the IT park in Kerala, since its inception in 2004, has been registering a robust growth, expanding day by day, creating more job opportunities and attracting multinational companies from across the globe. But for the past few days, it has been literally a stinking state of affairs around this IT hub.
Acute water crisis had led to a situation where several companies had to shut down and let their employees work from home after the water supply services failed to meet the daily requirement of 20 lakh litres of water in one of the most important IT hubs in the country.
Interestingly, the reason for the water shortage is a district administration-led water project, Operation Pure Water, aimed at supplying hygienic water via tanker trucks. When IT employees immediately brought the issue to the attention of the authorities, as a temporary solution, tanker trucks were pressed back into service by supplying water collected from private wells as earlier. But not for long. The crisis is looming large over the state’s IT sector like the sword of Damocles.
Operation Pure Water
The InfoPark water scarcity began with Operation Pure Water, a drive launched at the behest of the Kerala Legislative Assembly Committee on Petitions headed by K B Ganesh Kumar, MLA, proposing that potable water supplied by tanker trucks should be sourced from designated hydrant points of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA). The move was meant to ensure supply of hygienic water using tankers registered with the FSSAI and district administration in view of several complaints regarding supply of contaminated water collected from abandoned quarries, private wells or random water sources.
However, over 500 tanker trucks that ply across the city every day to supply potable water in apartment complexes, commercial establishments, including the IT park, found the KWA hydrant points inadequate to meet the requirements, leading to severe water scarcity.
InfoPark water shortage
The unforeseen water crisis was a blow to the techies and their companies. Canteens were closed, washrooms weren’t working, everything was in jeopardy – their health, jobs and safety.
Deepa, an employee at InfoPark, was in for a shock when she came to know that there wasn’t enough water even in washrooms. “Only one bucket of water was placed for everyone at our canteen. Men’s washrooms had dried up. Only a few ladies’ washrooms had water, and it was not adequate. Pregnant women and menstruating women working here were all using these unhygienic washrooms. From government building Athulya, Vismaya and Thapasya to the Wipro campus, the employees in most of the buildings were affected. Those who had the facility to work from home chose that; many companies declared holiday for a couple of days. There were companies who couldn’t afford holidays; their employees had to work. We can’t tell an off-shore client that we have no water here and delay at work. Many working on night shifts had to go outside the campus for water,” recalls Deepa, who is also the vice-president of the women’s wing of Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of IT employees.
This is a first such crisis affecting the IT hub. Anish Panthalani, president of Progressive Techies, a socio-cultural outfit of IT employees, explains, “Tanker truck water supply disruptions never used to affect InfoPark this bad, because most of our water needs were met by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA), which used to pump water from the nearby Kadambrayar. But a breach in the river bund resulted in salt water incursion, affecting the water supply for the past couple of weeks. Without pumping being restored, Operation Pure Water was launched; the timing was bad. At a time when the whole campus was depending on tanker trucks, water supply was cut down, with only one or two lorries pressed into service.”
They immediately petitioned Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Ernakulam district collector S Suhas, MLAs Ganesh Kumar and Raju Abraham. “We were informed that a temporary arrangement has been made for a week with tanker lorries resuming the operations, and a permanent solution will be reached by next week,” adds Anish. However, the issue of inadequate hydrant points will remain even after a week.
“We can’t do anything without enough KWA hydrant points to collect potable water. The sources in Aluva and Maradu alone wouldn’t help. Only if the number of collection points is increased can Operation Pure Water be implemented practically,” stresses Zakir Hussain, president of Ernakulam district Drinking Water Transporters Welfare Association. “We depend on private wells to meet the water requirements of the city. We understand that the drive is to curb distribution of contaminated water and exploitation of people, but unless there are adequate certified sources, what can be done? This is not an artificial water shortage. The Food Safety, Groundwater and municipal corporation authorities should certify more private wells as fit for water supply so that the crisis won’t happen in future,” he suggests.
Long-term solution
Asked about the long-term solution to the water crisis, a highly-placed source promised that the issue would be sorted out soon and it would be a permanent solution. “We are working out something. For the time being, the crisis will be handled without affecting the activities at InfoPark,” he said, without elaborating on the plan.
When contacted, KWA sources maintained that the tanker truck supply disruption would not be a long-term issue and assured that a second water treatment plant coming up at Aluva would offer a permanent solution to the water woes of InfoPark. “An administrative sanction has already secured. The work is on. With a new collection well, pump house, pipeline and storage tanks in place, the crisis will be solved in Kalamassery and Thrikkakkara areas, covering Kakkanad,” he said.
Airing her concerns, Deepa says, “Now, water reaches the campus every day via tanker trucks. The current arrangement, though temporary, still has the risk of supplying contaminated water. And we don’t know how long the supply would last. This could end any day. The permanent solution they propose would be tanker lorry, unless the KINFRA supply is restored. The issues would still persist.”
As a long-term solution, Anish has a suggestion, “The employees of InfoPark have been demanding a rainwater harvesting system and a water recycling facility. If implemented, those could meet at least half of our daily water needs. But before that the KINFRA pumping issues should be resolved and water supply needs to be restored.”
Compared to Technopark, the IT hub of Thiruvananthapuram, InfoPark lacks facilities with regard to infrastructure and basic amenities. “Technopark and InfoPark aren’t even comparable,” observes Anish. “InfoPark is very congested. Transportation connectivity is poor here. There are not enough parking spaces. Proper facilities to provide potable water for employees should have been mooted in the planning stage itself. There’s a long way to go.”
(Vandana Mohandas is an independent journalist based in Kochi.)