Tourist No-Nos
- Never hire unregistered houseboats. Each houseboat/shikara is marked with a registration number. Visit www.keralaports.gov.in to check out the list of registered boats.
- Do not go through brokers who flag you down on the road. You are likely to get cheated.
- The tourism counters are a big help at the starting point. You can hire a pre-paid houseboat, even get a rough idea of the fares.
- Always wear life jackets when the houseboat/shikara is in motion. Insist that the life buoys are untied and are easily accessible.
- Do not consume liquor or dance on the boat. Do not give liquor to the staff on the houseboat. They are not permitted to consume liquor.
- If the weather turns rough, insist that the houseboat/shikara docks to the side of the lake. Travel only during fair weather.
- Do not travel after 5 pm and before 8 am. The fishermen have their nets cast in the waters.
- In case of complaints, approach the police station at the finishing point.
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Nearly a decade ago, old Beatle Paul McCartney honeymooned on a Kerala houseboat and legend and hype has it that he wrote that wife “Heather’s birthday was on a flower-bedecked houseboat in the middle of a star-lit lagoon”. That was 2002. The rockstar has since divorced but the idea has caught on: dukes and duchesses, ageing princes and commoners, cricketers and netas, they have all been lured by the promise of being gently swayed to sleep in a floating hideaway on the Vembanad lake. Much has flowed down tourist gullets since—not only water—and much too muck has settled on the lake bed too.
The idyllic charm of dwelling on a lake (even for a night), fringed by coconut palms and green paddy fields, watching life unfold in the small houses perched on the ridges, has made the houseboat one of the must-have experiences in the god’s own country itinerary. Kerala tourism continues to aggressively market the region but the industry’s own lack of concern for the Vembanad is already telling on the lake. The tonnes of muck and human waste spewing into it is now threatening its very existence.
This has much to do with the fact in the last 3-4 years the number of houseboats has jumped manifold. And along with the passenger boats—the normal mode of transport for the local populace—the narrow rivers around the Vembanad and the lake itself now see regular traffic jams. Officially, the number of registered houseboats with the Kerala Ports Authority is 586, with another 87 holding temporary licences, but the people who navigate these waters everyday say there is a high number of unregistered boats too. Add to that the registered passenger boats (including shikaras)—566—and you know why the lake, which stretches over three districts, at times looks as if it’s shrinking. There are 14 lakh people dependent on the Vembanad lake for their livelihood with around 50,000 people living along the banks in Alappuzha and Kumarakom alone where most of the houseboats float around. There are strict orders that houseboats cannot ply after 5 pm and before 8 am, but they flout these rules with impunity. Come 8 in the morning, and the nightmare begins for the locals. The houseboats rush to get the tourists back to the finishing point and collect the next set of travellers.
In the Nehru Trophy area, there are seven countryboat ferry crossings for the locals. Housewife Shiny B., who has to take her six-year-old to school across the river every day, says, “During season, at least 30-40 boats come down this river...we are really afraid our small vallom (countryboat) will topple over. The mechanised boats don’t even bother to slow down at the river junctions. Everyday, it’s an endless rally....” Another passenger, Binu, adds, “The rulebook says the houseboats shouldn’t be plying after 5 pm because the fishermen cast their nets. But these boats care little for the locals or for the fishermen. Agreed, the crew are mostly locals but the money is made by the boat owners in the towns. They do nothing for this area.”
The large traditional countryboat or wooden kettuvallom that was converted into single/double-bedroom houseboats have given way to fancy floating steel structures now, with six bedrooms and more. Some of these can hold up to 400 people on its decks. Houseboats and passenger boats were brought under the aegis of the Kerala Ports and Kerala Inland Vessels Rules only in 2010. The design, stability and safety aspects of the boat are examined by naval architects before a licence is issued now. Alappuzha port conservator T.K. Ashokan explains, “If the length of the boats is over 30 metres, it’s a Class-A vessel and should get approval from the Indian Register of Shipping. Likewise, we are permitted to give licence to only single-deck houseboats. The upper deck is not permitted but we are in the process of examining existing vessels and giving them licences. Some 100 vessels with upper decks are now running with temporary licences.”
Most crucially, the ‘stability factor’ has been called into question in houseboats with upper decks, especially after a recent series of accidents. On June 12, 2013, a young couple from Andhra, software engineers on their honeymoon, lost their lives in Punnamada area while riding in a small shikara during a storm. The boat lost control and capsized and the couple, who were not wearing life jackets, drowned. In another incident at the beginning of the year, four women and a child drowned when they rushed from one boat to the next in a hurry to board one that wasn’t docked at the jetty. N. Sreekumar, general secretary of the All Kerala Houseboat Owners’ Association, says, “In the past two decades, no one has died because a houseboat sank. These accidents could have been avoided but they are just accidents. We do admit there is a boarding problem because there is overcrowding of houseboats...but the government has promised to make jetties for each houseboat to dock.”
The flouting of pollution norms is another big concern. Though houseboats must be fitted with bio-toilets to get a licence, researchers say not many use the enzymes properly, increasing the microbial load in the lake waters. Beginning December, the Thanneermukham barrage that regulates sea water influx into the lake and rivers is closed for a period of four months to reduce the brackishness and facilitate paddy farming.
Says Jojo T.D., project coordinator of NGO ATREE’s Vembanad community environment resource centre in Alappuzha, “Since the barrage is closed, the microbial load is very high during this time where the houseboats are docked at the starting point and at nights. Pollution levels increase substantially because the water is stagnant and cannot be flushed out. The total dissolved solids shoot up to over 10 times the normal level and the dissolved oxygen thus decreases. Most of the household waste that comes down the rivers coagulate here. The rivers deposit the waste from the houses on its banks and from the pilgrim rush at Sabarimala directly into these waters. The aftereffect: fish resources are down drastically. Breeding of black clams and the giant freshwater lobsters have also been hit. A rise in water-borne diseases during this period is another fallout.”
Incidentally, there are two sewage plants, at Kumarakom and Alappuzha, where the sludge produced by the houseboat bio-tanks are to be deposited. The sludge is further treated here to purify it. Says Sreekumar, “It’s not as if the houseboat owners and staff are not concerned about the lake and its ecology. We monitor the boats and if anyone is caught dumping faecal matter into the lake, it is reported and they have to pay a fine. The waste from the houses along the banks collects here but fingers are pointed at the houseboats. The pesticide and fertiliser levels in these waters are also high. What can we do?”
That said, for all the talk of concern, there is no system in place to ensure that the houseboats do not dump waste and plastic into the waters. Says Ashley Koshie, who had hired a houseboat for a group tour. “It was fabulous and the weather was great. But the leftover food and all the waste after lunch was dumped into the lake. How hygienic is that?”
With more and more bad news coming in, the government is waking up to the threat. A proposal is in the offing to stop new licences to build houseboats. Results of a scientific study on the houseboats and the damage to the ecology by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management will be out next month. Sources say it has found bacterial levels in the water here far above permissible levels. The frequent movements of the giant houseboats has also disturbed the ecology of the lake, bottom sediments and smaller living organisms being the most affected. As 73-year-old fisherman Pathrose Joseph says, “Not only has the fish stock dwindled substantially, the taste of the fish has also deteriorated. We hardly catch any pearlspot anymore.”
