Thiruvananthapuram: Rain helps soothen summer pain

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and irrigation officials who were in a fix over the depleting water level at Neyyar dam have a sigh of relief as rain lashed catchment areas of Peppara, Aruvikkara and Neyyar dams.
Two more days of summer showers are expected in the city. If the south-west monsoon makes an early landfall by May 25 as per Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predictions, Thiruvananthapuram will be saved from the ongoing drought, officials said.

After Thursday night showers, water levels rose by 1.20 cm and 50 cm at Peppara dam and Aruvikkara reservoir respectively. Though Neyyar dam canals remained wide open for irrigation, the water level went up by 10 cm. On normal days, irrigation officials were anticipating the water levels to go down by 30 cm as water was being simultaneously used for drinking purposes and irrigation.

“Due to rains, we will release more water for irrigation from Neyyar. Though it rained adequately, the wells around irrigation canals have less water,” irrigation officials said.

They were under pressure as several farmers raised a protest against non-release of water. KWA, on the other hand, was unhappy about reducing the level of water that could affect their pumping.

KWA was drawing over 50 million litres of drinking water per day from Neyyar dam to Aruvikkara reservoir. On Thursday, water resources minister Mathew T. Thomas, power minister M.M. Mani, agriculture minister V. Sunil Kumar and revenue minister E. Chandrasekharan visited the pumping facility at Kappukadu on the banks of Neyyar dam. Mayor V.K. Prasanth and local MLA K.S. Sabarinathan were present.