Kerala - Palakkad   

`State has not received its share'

Staff Reporter

JWRD chief confirms stoppage of water to Kerala Sholayar

PALAKKAD: K. Kochappan, Joint Director, Joint Water Regulation Division (JWRD) of the inter-State Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP), confirmed to The Hindu on Friday that Tamil Nadu had stopped the release of water from the PAP system to Kerala Sholayar from December 22, 2006. However, the State had not received its due share of water.

He said that under the PAP agreement, Tamil Nadu should ensure 12.3 tmc ft of water annually at Kerala Sholayar. Kerala Sholayar has to be filled to capacity on September 1 and February 1 every year.

The February 1 level is crucial for Kerala as three major tributaries of the Chalakudypuzha — the Parambikulam, Perivaripallam and the Thunacadavu — were diverted for Tamil Nadu's exclusive benefit.

The eligibility for the water year 2006-07 for Kerala Sholayar is 14.137 tmc ft, including the backlog. Kerala has utilised 6.429 tmc ft at the Kerala Sholayar power house till December 31, 2006. The utilisable storage available as on January 1, 2007 at Kerala Sholayar was only 4.425 tmc ft. So, the total water ensured is only 10.854 tmc ft. Hence, the balance to be ensured is 3.283 tmc ft. As no rainfall is expected before the southwest monsoon in June, Tamil Nadu should ensure at least the available 2 tmc ft of water. Even then, there would be a balance of 1.3 tmc ft in the current water year.

Carryover share

Mr. Kochappan said under the Chitturpuzha irrigation project of the PAP also, Kerala would not get its due share of 13.541 tmc ft water, which includes the carryover share of the previous year.

As per the PAP agreement, 7.25 tmc ft water should be released annually from the Aliyar dam at Manacadavu for use in the Chitturpuzha irrigation scheme. In the current water year, the eligibility of Kerala is 13.541 tmc ft, but it has received only 3.067 tmc ft so far. He said the JWRD had taken up the matter with its Tamil Nadu counterpart on December 24 (two days after the shutdown), but they had expressed their inability to resume water supply without orders from the higher authorities in Tamil Nadu.

The matter was reported to the Kerala Government on December 26. The Kerala Water Resources Department chief engineer also wrote to the Tamil Nadu authorities on December 27 urging them to resume water supply.

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