Tamil Nadu will lose 2,000 million cubic feet of water per day due to the sang, according to Kerala irrigation officials. This may have an impact on water supply in several areas.
After one of the Parambikulam dam’s three shutters developed snags and automatically opened to its full height of 25 feet, releasing 20,000 cusecs of water in less than a second, panic erupted in Kerala’s Palakkad and Thrissur districts on Wednesday.
At 2 am, security personnel camped nearby discovered the problem and immediately alerted officials in the two districts, who quickly took action to evacuate residents of low-lying areas after sounding an alert.
Following the snag, the dam’s administrators were compelled to open the two remaining shutters by 10 cm each in order to protect them from damage due to the rising water pressure.
“We heard a loud noise around 2 am and water gushed out with huge force. We immediately alerted officials who later opened two other shutters to ease the pressure. Timely intervention averted a major mishap,” said one of the security officials who did not wish to be named. He said that favorable weather conditions and weak rainfall over the last two weeks averted a disaster.
The shutter was completely damaged, according to irrigation engineer K Amruthavalli, who was camping nearby. As a result, repair work can only be done after releasing a sizable portion of the storage, which will take at least two days.
Despite being located in Kerala’s Palakkad, the dam is run by Tamil Nadu and provides a significant amount of water to Coimbatore and other districts in the neighboring state.
“We are closely monitoring the situation. There is no need to panic, but people living near rivers in the two districts will have to be vigilant,” said state revenue minister K Rajan.
According to district collector Haritha V. Kumar, two shutters of the Peringalkuth dam in Thrissur district were opened once the water reached the nearby Chalakudy river. She urged those who lived close to the river to exercise caution and refrain from going into bodies of water for fishing or bathing.
Wildlife wardens in the two districts have also been informed because the stretch is also home to many wild animals. Elephant herds were here trapped in the floods during the 2018 floods.
Tamil Nadu will lose 2,000 million cubic feet of water per day due to the sang, according to Kerala irrigation officials. This may have an impact on water supply in several areas. The dam’s maximum storage capacity is 1,825 feet, and a group of specialists from nearby.
Meanwhile, former dam safety authority chairman of Kerala justice (retd) N Ramachandran Nair has blamed Tamil Nadu officials for the issue. “We have alerted them a number of times but they failed to heed our warning,” he said. Tamil Nadu officials are yet to react to the incident.
Environmental activist SP Ravi said timely intervention averted a major mishap and asked authorities to keep a strict vigil on all dams in the state.
