The river flows

    As a result, the river downstream never runs completely dry. In May, when it was just starting to rain a little, we picnicked with the children of Father Shaiju's parish on the riverbank near Aluva. We thought the view was unparalleled even then. Partly for this reason, we decided to go back again.

 n  We took the metro to the terminus, in Aluva. Now part of Kochi, once its own village, Aluva still has an old palace, now serving as a government building, which we wanted to see. And across the Periyar river is a temple, which floods every year during the monsoon. We wanted to take a look there too.

   After exiting the metro, we took the shortest route to the river. The former palace faces the street in a lush garden. The guard told us, that the palace is used for guests of the Kerala government, when they stay in Kochi. However, as tourists, we were not allowed to enter the gardens. The palace was easier to see from the waterfront. There are terraces there, where you could just imagine a princess looking out over the river.

   A pedestrian bridge next to the palace, allows you to cross the Periyar to the Aluva Mahadeva Temple. This is the temple that floods every year during the rainy season. We walked across the bridge. When we reached the end of the bridge, it was clear that we would not be able to reach the temple itself keeping our feet dry. The bridge ends about fifty metres from the temple. So now it ends in the middle of the water. However, it was possible to wade to the dry bank. The water was only knee-high, as we could tell from the people making the rest of the crossing. But we decided we weren't really dressed for it and crossed back to the palace.

   Not much further down the river was another modern temple monastery, the Adwaithasramam Aluva, Sree Narayana Guru Temple. Built in the 1980s, it reminded us a bit of a mosque in terms of architectural style. Again with a beautifully landscaped garden along the river, but this time we were allowed to enter it.

   The rest of our walk went along the main streets of Aluva. We particularly noticed that there were a huge number of schools, right next to each other. Of all kinds of levels: Primary school, lower secondary and higher secondary. Also typically Indian: Most of  schools we came across, were either girls‘ or boys’ schools.  Meanwhile, it had started raining. After a few drops, the rain came down really hard. A mud river formed on the road, flowing from the car park to the sewage drain a few dozen metres away. After a drink and a snack at a restaurant, we decided to continue on our way anyway. We had set out ever prepared and had our umbrellas with us. By the time we got back to the metro station, it was dry again.

Pollution

   Unfortunately, the lower reaches of the Periyar are heavily polluted. The Eloor area, about 12 kilometres north of St Albert's, is home to nearly 300 chemical plants. Companies in this industrial zone discharge their untreated sewage into the river. Greenpeace India describes the lower Periyar as a cesspool of toxins, with alarmingly high levels of DDT, Endosulfan (an insecticide), chromium-6, chromium-3, cyanide, BHC, zinc and lead. This situation arose from 1943 when the first state-owned chemical company, FACT (Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore) settled there. FACT has expanded into a multinational company producing a huge variety of toxic chemicals.

DDT

   DDT is produced by another Indian state-owned company, HIL (Hindustan Insecticides Ltd.). DDT has been banned in the Netherlands since 1973 because of its harmful health effects. DDT can cause breathing problems, skin irritation and can affect the nervous system and lead to symptoms such as dizziness, headache, trembling hands and confusion. It is also associated with cancer and fertility problems. Here and in Africa, it is still used in the absence of an effective alternative to fight the malaria mosquito. Attempts by the World Wildlife Fund to ban DDT worldwide have failed.