THRISSUR: With heavy rain lashing Thrissur district and Met Department issuing a red alert on Thursday, the residents in Chalakudy are fearing a repeat of 2018 flood situation. Without much chaos, many of them were shifted to safety with the help of fishermen and various service personnel.
The release of water from Tamil Nadu has caused concern among the people living on the banks of Chalakudy river. Heavy rain at Valparai for the past two days has led to an increase in inflow to the Upper Sholayar dam in Tamil Nadu. Water released from Upper Sholayar reaches the Lower Sholayar dam, which is located near the border village of Malakkapara in Kerala.
The water released from Lower Sholayar will reach Poringalkuthu dam at Vazhachal in three hours. Poringalkuthu dam has a capacity to hold only 32 MCM water and it can fill in two hours. Considering the situation, the shutters of Poringalkuthu dam have been kept raised and the heavy flow will reach Chalakudy town within an hour.
On Thursday evening, TN started releasing water from Upper Sholayar, with Lower Sholayar receiving 4,280 cusecs. Considering the rising water level in Chalakudy River, the municipality held a meeting to review the rescue operations on Thursday. As the district administration has issued a high alert on Chalakudy river basin areas, the municipality urged people who were shifted to safety during 2018 flood to immediately vacate their houses and shift to either shelter camps or relatives’ houses. By evening, the water level in Chalakudy River rose by 10cm.
The municipality has opened a 24-hour control room to coordinate rescue operations as the water level is expected to rise further during the night. Municipal chairman Eby George said emergency response teams have been deployed in all its divisions. “People can contact ward councillors and emergency response teams for any assistance,” he said.
District Collector Haritha V Kumar said all measures have been taken to evacuate people. Twelve members of fishermen community are engaged in evacuating people from Chalakudy area. “During high tide, the situation will be grave in Chalakudy and Mala regions as the flood water will not flow smoothly into the sea. In such a scenario, the water level will rise further,” she said.
What happened on August 16, 2018
Five dams are located upstream Poringalkuthu dam --- Parambikulam, Neerar, Thoonakadavu and Upper Sholayar in TN and Lower Sholayar in Kerala. During the 2018 flood, TN released huge quantity of water which filled the Lower Sholayar dam in no time. Due to the huge flow, Poringalkuthu dam overtopped, though all shutters were kept raised. Water came gushing to Poringalkuthu dam which started overflowing at 4.30am on August 16, 2018. The water level in the Chalakudy river rose by 16 feet and even two-storey houses in Chalakudy town got inundated by 7am.