Near Kochi shore, rising salinity makes water unusable
The Hindu
Rising seas from climate change are bringing saltwater into the freshwater of places like Chellanam, rendering unusable what had been a vital part of everyday life
Anthony Kuttappassera's family has lived in the same house at the edge of the Arabian Sea for more than a century. He grew up drinking water from the pond and the well outside his home.
But 60 years ago, that water became too salty to drink. Then it grew too salty for bathing or washing clothes. Now, the pond is green, buggy and nearly dry — just like the rest of the wells and ponds in the Chellanam area of Kochi, a city of about 600,000 people on India's southwestern coast.
Rising seas from climate change are bringing saltwater into the fresh water of places like Chellanam, rendering unusable what had been a vital part of everyday life. And frequent breaks in the pipelines that bring fresh water from inland exacerbates the misery for residents in this village of about 8 square kilometers (3 square miles), requiring water to be trucked in.
Each truckload of water has to be poured into barrels and buckets and carried by hand to the village's 600 households.
“We do not have clean water for even cleaning ourselves. We are surrounded by water but we do not have any consumable water,” the 73-year-old Kuttappassera said. “When this pond was in usable condition there was no such issue and we had enough water for everything. There was no need for any other source. But now we are using packed water for everything.”
Although saltwater invasion of crucial groundwater supplies is a climate change problem around the world, richer nations can adapt more easily. It hits harder in countries like India, expected to surpass China as the world's most populous nation this year. India is still regarded as a developing nation even as it has grown into one of the world's largest economies.
India is the world's third-highest emitter of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. The nation is increasingly prioritising a transition to clean energy, with ambitious targets for renewables, a green hydrogen initiative to make clean fuel and a program encouraging individual citizens to live more sustainably.