THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Early Tuesday morning, Kerala Water Resources Minister Mathew T Thomas made a frantic beeline for Neyyar, the river that originates in the southern hills of the Western Ghats and drains into the Arabian Sea.
The idea was to see whether water can be pumped from the Neyyar dam to the Aruvikkara dam to quench the thirst of Thiruvananthapuram city. The state capital needs roughly 300 million litres daily.
It was not a happy minister who returned to the state capital later in the day.
“The outlook is far from good. There is only 13 mm3 of water in the Neyyar reservoir. The water will have to be pumped right across 9.5 km and the seepage loss will be enormous,’’ he said.
His disappointment is far from surprising as the Neyyar, a 56 km river, has shrunk to a thin stream in places, a shadow of its usual self. All the same, the minister has asked the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to submit a feasibility report on Wednesday in consultation with the State Irrigation Department.
With the summer at its peak, Kerala - home to 44 rivers - is battling dried-up reservoirs, emaciated rivers and the consequent potable water shortage. On Monday, for instance, the government ordered KWA to cut down pumping from the Peppara dam - the chief source of potable water for Thiruvananthapuram - by 25 per cent after water levels fell drastically.
Although the state - declared drought-hit in October 2016 - has received a fair amount of summer rainfall, it has not helped resolve the bigger question of tackling the drought, according to the government.
“Certain districts have received summer rains, but not much has fallen in the catchment areas of the dams,’’ Mathew T Thomas said.
With April into its second half, a government assessment has put the northernmost district of Kasargod - along with Malappuram and Palakkad - in the red zone.
In Pantha, a catchment area of the Neyyar reservoir, the dried bed had begun cracking up in January itself, well before the summer technically stepped in. April has only aggravated the situation in Pantha and its neighbouring regions like Amboori and Mayam where the local people now heavily depend on water tankers.
‘’The situation has become extremely difficult. There has never been pipeline supply to most parts of Amboori panchayat in the first place, and now, the wards get only a tanker of water a day,’’ said Anitha, the panchayat vice-president.