IDUKKI: With the water level in Idukki reservoir continuing to rise, the district administration here on Tuesday afternoon increased the height of one opened shutter from 120 cm to 160 cm.
Authorities said shutter number three will be raised to 160 cm while two and four will remain at 120 cm and shutter one and five at 40 cm.
The water level has reached 2,387.04 feet, which prompted the authorities to increase the shutter height. "With this, 330 cumecs of water will be discharged. Hence the people along the banks of Periyar from Cheruthoni town should remain vigilant," district administration said in a release.
The water will reach Eriyaad, Poyya regions of Thrissur district and various parts of Kodungallur Municipality within 15 hours from afternoon and the authorities have asked the people there to remain cautious.
Cusecs is the volume of water discharged measured in cubic feet per second. While when the same is measured in cubic metre per second, it's called cumecs. One cusec is equivalent to 28.32 litre per second.
Meanwhile, the four spillway shutters of Malampuzha dam were raised by 80 cm today.
As the water inflow into the Banasura Sagar reservoir in Wayanad district has increased, the district administration has informed that apart from the already opened shutters, one more will be opened by 10 cm. "This might increase the water level in the Kabani river by 10 cm," the authorities said.
The Ernakulam district administration has urged people residing along the banks of Periyar river to remain vigilant after the Idamalayar dam was opened today to discharge 50 cumecs of excess water.
The water level at the Mullaperiyar dam, which is managed by the Tamil Nadu government, is at 139.6 feet, prompting the authorities to raise 10 shutters by 90 cm each and three by 30 cm each discharging 2,216 cusecs of water.
A red alert was issued in Idukki dam when the water level reached 2382.53 feet. The FRL of Idukki dam is 2,403 feet.
The Idukki reservoir consists of two dams, the Arch dam and the Cheruthoni dam and the shutters of Cheruthoni dam were opened for the first time in 26 years in 2018, to mitigate the worst flood faced by the state in a century.
The water level at Periyar river, where the water from these dams flow into are slowly increasing, district authorities said.
Currently the water level stood at 2.335 m. The flood warning will be issued at 2.50 m. It will breach the danger level, when the water level reaches 3.76 m, district authorities said, adding that the people residing along the banks of the river should stay vigilant.
The shutters of Pamba dam have also been raised from 30 cm to 45 cm to discharge 38 cumecs of water.
On Monday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had asked the people to remain vigilant as major dams across the State have been opened and the water level in the rivers was likely to rise.
The state government said it has taken measures to evacuate people from areas where the water level is likely to rise but asked everyone to remain cautious as the water inflow to the dams and reservoirs are still strong due to rains in the eastern part of Kerala.