The Hindu 27.04.2010

Water shortage in Kannur town, nearby areas

Special Correspondent

KANNUR: Parts of Kannur town and its suburbs are reeling under a severe shortage of water.

Matters are made worse by the frequent disruption of supply of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA).

People are experiencing an unprecedented drinking water scarcity, with open groundwater wells in different areas, including those in the municipal limits and nearby panchayats, going dry.

With the KWA supply remaining disrupted for days in some parts, households and eateries depend on parallel supply of water by private individuals. Even that is being affected owing to the receding groundwater level. Restaurants and hotels have been badly hit. Many restaurants remain open only when they can arrange water supply.

Repeated disruptions in the KWA supply are putting people to hardship, especially those who depend solely on the water sourced from the Pazhassi Irrigation Project reservoir at Veliyambra. Supply of water from Veliyambra has been irregular since January last. Regular leaks in the old pipeline from the pumping station to the overhead tank here and frequent disruptions in the supply of power to the pumping station add to the problem.

KWA Assistant Executive Engineer Rameshan Koyilotan said disruption of power to the pumping station was a major cause of the water shortage. He said when pumping was disrupted for 40 minutes, it took eight hours for the water to reach the tank.

The Hindu 27.04.2010

Karapuzha project to be dedicated to nation in May

A Correspondent

End to water woes: A view of the Karapuzha irrigation project area.

KALPETTA: The Karapuzha irrigation project in the district is getting ready for partial commissioning to irrigate 957 hectares of land.

A trial run was completed successfully a few weeks ago and the project will be dedicated to the nation by the second week of May, P.K. Jacob, Executive Engineer of the project, told The Hindu on Monday.

The project envisages a dam across the Karapuzha, a tributary of the Cauvery, a reservoir, and channels to irrigate 5,221 hectares of land in nine panchayats in three taluks.

The approval of the Planning Commission was received in 1978 and work on the project started in 1980. The preliminary estimate was Rs.7.6 crore, but as much as Rs.259 crore has been spent on the project so far, P.R. Sasikumar, Assistant Executive Engineer, said. The revised estimate shows that as much as Rs.429 crore is needed for the completion of the dam, he said.

Though the construction of the right bank channel, measuring 8.8 km, and the left bank channel, measuring 16.74 km, were completed last ear, five breaches occurred during the last monsoon. So, the full potential of the dam cannot be utilised for irrigation. However, 12 km of the channels can be used to irrigate as much as 300 hectares of land at the time of partial commissioning, Mr. Sasikumar said.

Work on three branches of the left bank channel and 18 distributaries of both is yet to be completed. These will be built after a joint verification by the irrigation, agriculture and revenue department officials, he added.

Though the total water storage capacity of the dam is 76.5 million cubic metres, water will be stored till half that capacity (up to the spillway) to prevent submersion of catchment areas where land acquisition procedures are yet to be completed.

As much as 1,238 of 1,250 hectares of land has been acquired for the reservoir and 126 hectares acquired for the construction of the channels. A drinking water project of the Kerala Water Authority is nearing completion for the supply of 15 million litres of water from the reservoir to the Kalpetta municipality and the Meenangadi and Ambalavayal panchayats.