KOCHI: "We have 44 rivers in Kerala, so water is not a problem.”
This was what Industries and Law Minister P Rajeeve said in his letter to top IT firms in Bengaluru, which has been in news lately for the unprecedented water scarcity, as he looked to woo them to set up shop in Kerala.
However, reports of water scarcity in many parts of the state and an unprecedented summer sans any rain paints a bleak picture here too. Perhaps, unbeknownst to the minister, a similar fate likely looms over Kochi, his hometown.
However, unlike Bengaluru, which, according to the city water utility Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), greatly relies (over 80%) on a single river, the Cauvery, for its water, Kochi boasts a lush, river-laden landscape, as Rajeeve pointed out.
Yet, for all its outward appearance of water wealth, as summer intensifies, Kochi is falling face first into a puddle of crisis. Parts of Vypeen, Tripunithura, Paravoor, Thrikkakara and Kalamassery are already feeling the heat.
“Kochi is in the grip of a drinking water shortage. Now, as we approach the peak of summer, the scarcity is likely to worsen,” says an official with the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), the state agency managing water supply.
Over 95% households in Kochi depend solely on water supply. As per KWA data, the city’s water supply faces shortage of 80 million litres daily. Places like Edappally, Vennala, Cheranalloor, Vaduthala and Vypeen are already experiencing acute water shortage. This predicament, the official believes, offers a glimpse into the broader water management challenges confronting the district.
Kochi gets its water from two primary sources — Periyar and Muvattupuzha rivers. Every day, the water treatment plants (WTP) at Aluva and Maradu produce 300 and 100 million litres, respectively.
Though historically there has not been any significant drop in production (Aluva WTP, in fact, produces more water than its intended capacity of 225 million litres), the consumption of portal water has gone up 10-15%, records indicate.
This pattern was once commonly noticed during summer months, as the drying up of wells forced more people to depend on the city’s water supply. “However, of late, it is a perennial trend,” the KWA official says.
“Just look at Kakkanad. While it is true that the Infopark has been a great boon to the region, the influx of people who have now made it home has invariably taken a toll on local utility and infrastructure. There’s higher demand for water, more than what officials anticipate,” says Akhil Dileep, a resident.
Indeed, there has been a mushrooming of hostels in the region, most of them housing youngsters, in recent years, warranting a greater demand for resources than a decade ago. To match this, KWA eyes the proposed water treatment plant at Aluva, which is capable of producing 190 million litres daily, as the only possible solution.
However, a KWA chief engineer said the project that had been on paper for the past eight years remains in its early phase. “A detailed project report has been prepared. However, it will be some years before the plant is operational,” the officer says, hesitant to divulge more information.
The other plant proposed on Kinfra grounds, capable of producing 45 million litres daily and for which work was slated to begin, got caught in political tangles after the Congress-led opposition alleged the CPM-led government was exploiting the Periyar to appease the industrial mafia. Though Rajeeve fanned the studies done on the protesters then, none budged.
These are just two of the nearly `20,000-crore worth projects in the state aimed at increasing drinking water production. Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine, in response to a question in the assembly on water scarcity, had said with these projects, the state plans to increase drinking water production by 1,400 million litres daily over the next two to three years.
In addition, the KWA’s Jal Jeeva Mission, envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water to all, too has expanded its reach, connecting 3.68 million households as of January.
Yet, apart from expanding the supply network, KWA has failed to implement projects to boost water output. “Kerala used to be a state with surplus water; not any more. It is high time we conserve rainwater. There should be coordinated efforts by various agencies in the sector to adopt water conservation measures and avert the imminent crisis,” urges Dinesan Cheruvat, KWA joint managing director.
This is indeed vital given the recent vagaries of nature. Kerala’s climate has changed drastically in the past few years, with the monsoon marked by long dry periods interrupted by short spells of heavy rainfall, and summer days getting hotter.
The Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment has implored “new strategies and policies to avert a water-related crisis in Kerala.” According to the council, the coming summers are going to be way hotter as temperatures are likely to soar by 1.7 degrees Celsius.
S Abhilash of the Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research at Cochin University of Science and Technology, says climate change has made Kerala’s rain availability unpredictable. “Now, we must wait for freak systems that form in the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea to receive the desired rainfall,” he says.
While it is easy to blame climate change for it all, a main contributor to the now-unfolding dilemma is the decrease in agriculture, the disappearing of fields, and the filling of wetlands. Earlier, these essentially acted as water storage tanks, helping rainwater seep down to groundwater level.
Now, without these, Kerala’s topography, which spans from the hills to the coast, sees a quick flow of water collected from the river basin to the sea. According to a study by the Central Groundwater Board, Kerala is the third state, after Tamil Nadu and Punjab, that registered a steep decline in water levels.
“What we are facing is not a water shortage issue. It is a management issue,” says Akhil.
In Numbers
244.3 MLD Kochi’s water demand
Current production
Capacity of Aluva plant: 225 MLD
Present production: 300 MLD
Capacity of Maradu plant: 100 MLD
Present production: 94 MLD
Supply
To Kochi Corporation: 200MLD
Gap: 45MLD
Kochi conundrum
Actual consumption in urban areas in the city: 200 lpcd
Actual gap: 80 MLD
Plans
Implementation of the proposal for constructing 190MLD plant at Aluva to tide over the shortage in Kochi corporation
Project cost: Rs 525 crore
The steps for increasing the production at the Maradu plant are under consideration