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Steps to provide drinking water to Chittur

By Our Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD, MARCH 17. A meeting of the Joint Water Regulatory Board, consisting of the officials of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu, at Aliyar on Tuesday decided to make a feasibility study on pumping the dead storage (minimum water level to be retained to prevent release of mud into the canal) from the Parambikulam Dam to provide drinking water to Chittur taluk in the district.

The Kerala Water Resources Department today deputed an engineer to make the feasibility study on pumping water from the inter-State Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) in the wake of the acute drinking water shortage in the district. Though the Parambikulam Dam is in Kerala territory all the structures of the PAP system are under the control of Tamil Nadu. So, to pump the water the permission of Tamil Nadu Government is required.

There is only 1 tmc. of live storage left in the dam now and Tamil Nadu is using it to supply drinking water in the Pollachi and Udumalpet areas. But the dam has a dead storage of 4 tmc. and from this 1 tmc. could be pumped for providing drinking water in Chittur as all other water sources in the taluk have dried up. According to official sources, in the current water year ending in June, Tamil Nadu has released less than 3 tmc. of water from the PAP to Chitturpuzha as against the due share of 7.25 tmc. This has resulted in the destruction of large tracts of second crop of paddy as well as drinking water shortage in Chittur.

Officials here said that 2 tmc. of water could be used from the dead storage but Parambikulam being a wildlife sanctuary at least 1 tmc. of water should be left in the dam for meeting the drinking water needs of large number of animals and birds. For the safety of the dam and its structure 1 tmc. has to be stored in the dam. They said that if Tamil Nadu permitted Kerala to pump 1 tmc. of water from Parambikulam the Kerala side would permit the neighbouring State to pump water from the dead storage of the Siruvani Dam that was providing drinking water to Coimbatore city.

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