Economic and Cultural Importance of Meenachil River
Meenachil river is the major river in kottayam district and lakhs of people and many major towns and cities like Erattupetta, Palai, Ettumannur and Kottayam depend on this river for drinking water and water for commercial activities. In earlier days when road transport was not developed much, kettuvalloms used to transport goods through meenachil up to two km.s above Erattupetta and take agricultural products like copra to Alleppy port. Thousands of farmers use water from the river for agriculture. It is the natural channel for the discharge of rain water into the sea from eastern hills of kottayam dist. In its banks have come up major cities and commercial centres which also are cradles of the culture of this area of Travancore. Meenachil river water enters the Vembanad lake before reaching the sea and has a major share in shaping the water bodies in and around Kottayam towards western coast and the backwaters. During monsoon the river can be full or flooding the nearby low lying areas on many occasions. People who live near the river and its tributaries indeed are deeply concerned about the decline of the river's water retention capacity due to loss of tree cover, top soil loss and excessive legal and illegal sand mining and also the serious water pollution issues due to gabage disposal to the river all though the banks of the river. There is now acute shortage of water in summer. The mighty RAIN-FED river turns almost completely dry bed in summer. Unless some serious, immediate effort is not taken, Meenachil river will soon become highly polluted affecting lakhs of people who depend on the river.
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