THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation and district administration locked horns over the opening of the shutters of Aruvikkara dam early in the morning on Friday. The shutters of the Kerala Water Authority’s dam in Aruvikkara were opened early in the morning, causing sudden increase in water level in Karamana river.
While Mayor K Sreekumar said that the dam was opened without sufficient warning causing destruction to property on the river banks, district collector K Gopalakrishnan asserted that the dam was opened following protocol. Meanwhile Minister Kadakampally Surendran came out in support of the district administration saying that all protocols must have been followed by the district administration at a time of emergency like the one the district faced on Friday.
In his response, District Collector K Gopalakrishnan said that the dam in Aruvikkara is not a storage dam but a regulation dam which helps in controlling the flow of water. “The drinking water to Thiruvananthapuram city is supplied from Aruvikkara dam. Its capacity is 46.6 metre. At all times, the water level is maintained at 46.2 m so that the water supply to the city is not affected. The district was under yellow alert from 1 pm on Thursday to 1 pm on Friday.
Usually we only expect 6-11 cm rain during yellow alerts. However, we received 22.3 cm rain during the period. It means we got half of the rain we had in three days during the 2018 floods on Friday early morning. This is beyond the capacity of Aruvikkara dam. The shutters were opened by 3.30 am. The information was sent to police, revenue department and other departments. All precautionary measures were taken. In the case of Killiyar and Neyyar, the catchment areas of the rivers received heavy rain on the day causing increase in water level,” said collector in a social media post.
Mayor K Sreekumar said the city corporation did not receive any official communication about the dam opening. “I am not aware if there is a protocol or not. However, if the corporation was informed, our machinery could have been used to handle the situation better.
We could have moved some people from their houses. They could have saved some valuables and avoided the amount of distress they went through. It should be noted that the usual areas of flooding in the city like Thampanoor, East Fort and Over Bridge regions were not affected. We cleaned the Amayizhanjan canal which is actually the job of the irrigation department which helped in this case and no flooding occurred in usual regions. Vattiyoorkkavu, Thrikkannapuram and Attukal regions usually never see flash flood. Dam opening without sufficient warning caused this,” said the Mayor.
DAMAGE CAUSED
The lasting effect of the torrential downpour which lashed the state capital on Friday continues to be felt in the city, with the Killiyar’s bund near Mangottukadavu in Konchiravila getting breached late on Saturday. Seven houses suffered partial damage and three of these are in pretty bad shape. The 34 occupants, including children, of the affected houses were shifted to the relief camp at the Attukal temple rest house