Severe rain deficit coupled with a harsh summer has Kerala staring at a drought-like situation. It’s now obvious that if there’s no rainfall till mid-April, a crisis is imminent as water bodies have started drying up, reservoir levels are down, and groundwater is becoming scarce. It did look like the state may be headed for a serious situation when rains played truant, recording a 24 percent deficit in 2023. There was a 34 percent deficit in rainfall during the last southwest monsoon season, which accounts for 70 percent of Kerala’s annual rainfall.
When the summer, too, set in early and day temperatures started touching new peaks as early as February itself, it became clear a long hot and parched season is truly here. What has contributed to the present crisis is the sharp decline in groundwater levels after the 2018 floods. The changes in riverbed terrain due to the flood have adversely affected both the percolation of water—necessary for recharging of groundwater resources—and the carrying capacity of the rivers.
Weather experts have blamed the scant rainfall and unusually hot summer on the El Nino effect, but Kerala’s climate has changed dramatically in the past few years, with the monsoon season being marked by long dry periods interrupted by short spells of heavy rainfall and summer days getting hotter.
While the effects of climate change have made their presence felt across the globe, Kerala, or for that matter India, cannot be an exception. Kerala’s situation calls for particular consideration because it’s one of the prime beneficiaries of the monsoon rain and has as many as 81 dams built across its rivers to store and utilise water. Yet, it is facing a water shortage.
Kerala is paying the price for the destruction of nature, particularly water bodies and wetlands. Quarrying, deforestation, rampant construction activities, and encroachment of water bodies have reduced the land’s capacity to absorb water and destroyed the natural draining systems that once ensured that Kerala didn’t get flooded and its groundwater was recharged. While the floods exposed its decreasing ability to handle rain, this summer has bared its inability to make use of whatever rain it gets.
What’s hurting Kerala is its failure to adapt to climatic changes. Water management and conservation assume greater significance in the new scenario. The sagging efforts to restore and conserve water bodies need a new push. Rainwater harvesting, construction of small check dams, and restoration of ponds can go a long way in dealing with water shortages.