COIMBATORE: Citing poor storage in the reservoirs coming under the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP), Tamil Nadu officials on Tuesday told the neighbouring state Kerala that they would be unable to supply water as per the PAP agreement.
The officials of the Tamil Nadu water resources, PWD, along with the representatives of other lining departments, conveyed their inability to supply the designated 19.55 TMC of water as per the PAP agreement during the Inter State Water Sharing meet held between the two States at Thiruvanathapuram on Saturday.
As per the agreement, Tamil Nadu has to provide 12.30 TMC of water from Sholyar dam and 7.25 TMC of water from Aliyar dam to Kerala every year (water year). The Tamil Nadu officials informed at the meeting that they have shortfall of nearly nine TMC of water in 10 reservoirs coming under the PAP when compared to last year’s capacity. This was due to poor rainfall during the southwest and northeast monsoon last year. They added that only two TMC of water was available at the reservoirs, while the total storage was about 11 TMC last year.
“Usually, we would receive a total of 28 TMC of water during rainy season. However, we received a only 17.04 TMC of water last year. We shared a total of 7.13 TMC of water with Kerala and the remaining 9.91 TMC of water was distributed to Tamil Nadu. Currently, we have storage of just two TMC of water. Hence, we have asked the Kerala officials to use the water only for drinking purposes till May and not for irrigation purpose. The water will also be used for only drinking purpose in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts,” said a senior official who participated in the meeting.
The meeting was attended by S K Prabakar, secretary, PWD, K Paneendra Reddy, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply department, M Saikumar Chief Managing Director of TNEB, R Subramanian, Chairman, Cauvery Technical Cell, among others from the Tamil Nadu side. Similarly, V J Kurian Additional Chief Secretary, Water Resources, Tinku Biswal, and a few other officials from Kerala participated.