The Hindu : Move to divert rivers opposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Move to divert rivers opposed

By G. Prabhakaran

PALAKKAD, JAN. 17. The reported move to divert the Anamalayar and Upper Neerar rivers under the Parambikulam Aliyar Project agreement to be revised by Tamil Nadu and Kerala in March, would spell doom for the Periyar and Idamalayar river systems, according to officials of the Water Resources Department and the Kerala State Electricity Board .

The KSEB Chairman, T.M. Manoharan, is learnt to have already written to the Power Secretary against the move. Board officials have not taken lightly the exclusion of the Electricity Minister, Kadavoor Sivadasan, from the Ministerial team that discussed the revision of the PAP agreement with the Tamil Nadu authorities in the first week of January. The Minister for Water Resources, T.M. Jacob, had said here on January 12 that ``we have almost reached the final stage of understanding on all major issues related to the Neerar, Anamalayar, Parambikulam, Sholayar and Aliyar.''

It now appears that the technical committee of the Kerala Government for the renewal of the PAP agreement is a divided house. T.K. Sasi, chief engineer of Inter-State Waters and member of the technical committee, said, ``the Anamalayar and Neerar waters be given to Tamil Nadu while protecting the interests of the State.''

But another member of the committee said the Ministerial team had gone back on the Kerala Government's known stand that Anamalayar should be excluded from the PAP agreement.

According to the supplementary memorandum on the review of the PAP agreement (November 1992), ``no sharing of Anamalayar waters had been proposed. The discussions revolved around sharing of the Thekkadiyar waters... . There was, therefore, no basis for introducing the Anamalayar waters into the agreement. Besides, Kerala has not completed the construction of the Idamalayar project. The precarious power situation of the State does not permit Kerala to let go any water from the Anamalayar. For these reasons, it is proposed that sharing the Anamalayar waters may be dispensed with.''

The officials who oppose the move for diversion told that ``it is not at all advisable to allow Tamil Nadu to divert the Anamalayar waters. It is one of the four tributaries of the Idamalayar which feeds the Idamalayar reservoir. Tamil Nadu is already diverting more than 10.5 tmcft a year from the Neerar, a major tributary of the Idamalayar, to the Parambikulam system. Kerala gets only 10 per cent of Neerar's annual yield. So if Kerala allows Tamil Nadu to divert the Anamalayar to that State, the Idamalayar reservoir would be of no use. The Anamalayar lies within the Kerala and has its entire catchment area within the State.''

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