Kerala - Kochi   

Kallarkutty to be opened in January

KOCHI: The sluice gate of the Kallarkutty dam, which has its reservoir in Konnathadi and Vellathooval panchayat limits in Idukki district, will be raised for a few days in the first week of January.

Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) officials said this would not affect drinking-water supply in the Kochi region. They said the outflow of water would be in a much smaller scale than that in January this year, when the dam was opened and slush from the reservoir washed far downstream, contaminating the Periyar waters for nearly two months and leading to a shutdown of 36 drinking-water schemes. The river is the main water source of people in Kochi region.

Officials said the Board had notified the two panchayats, the Vellathooval police station, the District Collectors of Idukki and Ernakulam and a host of other officials that the dam would be opened. Water would be released strictly in accordance with a protocol adopted after this January’s goof-up. The protocol insists that opening of the dam should be notified at least a month in advance, and the people likely to be affected should be alerted.

This year, the dam had been opened for 40 days for laying the penstock for the Neriyamangalam Extension Scheme. This had muddied the Periyar down to Aluva and triggered widespread ire. Several drinking-water pumping stations along the river had to be shut down for weeks together, hitting water supply in several panchayat and municipal areas.

K.S. Pradeep, Deputy Chief Engineer of the KSEB’s Chithirapuram generation circle office, told The Hindu that the problem would not happen this time. The dam would be opened only for about a week and the sluice gate would be raised for two or three days. The entire operation would last 10 days. As a result, the outflow would reach only up to the Lower Periyar and hence, there was no question of slush flowing downstream.

Mr. Pradeep said the Board would take all precautions not to cause any difficulties to the people. The dam was likely to be opened on January 3, depending on the approval of the Board authorities.

The dam has to be opened for three reasons: joining the pipes of the Neriamangalam scheme; erecting the tunnel intake gate of the Kallarkutty dam; and recovering the body of the Board employee Jayson who has been missing after the August 17 Panniyar penstock burst that killed seven persons. Mr. Pradeep said Navy divers’ help would be sought to locate the body.

John Peruvanthanam, environmental activist, alleged that the opening of the dam was to help the “sand lobby,” which would get a windfall as the outflow would push down hundreds of truckloads of sand from the reservoir. He alleged that following this January’s opening of the dam, the “sand lobby” had made at least Rs. 60 crore. Several politicians, trade union leaders, contractors and lorry drivers were involved in this illegal activity. Forty new “kadavus” (places from where sand can be mined from a river) had been created and several illegal paths opened in the reserve forests.

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