The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Water level rises in Peppara

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Water level rises in Peppara

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 11. The recent heavy rain in the city and adjoining areas, which caused a lot of damage to property in the coastal areas, have caused a strong inflow of water to the Peppara dam, the city's sole source of drinking water.

Officials of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) told The Hindu that the water level at the Peppara reservoir reads 101.35 metres above the mean sea level (MSL). This translates to about three months of water supply to the city.

The city's drinking water supply situation is therefore in a much better position that it was during the same time last year. Then, the dam had only about 99 m (above MSL) of water— just enough for a month's supply of water to the city.

Last summer, the reservoir witnessed a steady fall in its water levels, which went from 101.4 m on March 7, to 99.6 m on April 18 and then to 99 m during May. Moreover, it took till the first week of September for the dam to get full. The crest level of the dam is 104.05 metres above MSL.

Though these figures may give a rosy picture of the storage capacity of the Peppara reservoir, it is pointed out that heavy siltation over the years has reduced the dam's capacity by a good percentage. The inability of the State Government to get Central clearance for lowering the radial gates (shutters) at the dam has prevented the KWA from using Peppara to its full potential. An additional 30 million cubic metres of water can be stored in the reservoir if the radial gates are lowered; the dam's crest level will, consequently rise by six metres. Then Peppara will have enough water to service the city for 250 days.

Augmenting the storage capacity of the Peppara dam is all the more vital at this juncture, given that an additional 80 million litres of water will be drawn from it per day, once the city-specific projects coming under the State-wide drinking water scheme funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), are brought on line. Now water is being drawn from Peppara at the rate of 214 million litres a day. Even so the Peppara dam is expected to be able to provide enough water to the city only till the year 2020.

Even though there is enough water at the source, these days, many areas in the city continue to experience shortages of water, thanks to an ageing distribution network which is unable to keep pace with the drinking water requirements of the city. Till date, the KWA has not be able to solve the water problems faced by the elevated areas in the city such as Thirumala, PTP Nagar and Poojappura. Even in places in the heart of the city, such as Statue and Pulimoodu the water pressure in the pipelines are too low to be of any use.

This situation is expected to improve only when, as part of the JBIC scheme, the city drinking water distribution network is overhauled.

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