The State government’s move to release 20 mld (million litres per day) of water from the Malampuzha dam to an industrial park maintained by the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) at Kanjikode, near here, by reviving an old multicrore pipeline project has evoked protests from the local people, especially the farming community.
Despite a united resolution adopted by the District Development Samithi to abandon the ₹33.3-crore project, citing the acute water scarcity in the district, the government is in the process of floating tenders for laying the pipeline. Interestingly, the samithi had adopted the resolution as per a suggestion made by local MLA and Administrative Reforms Committee chairman V.S. Achuthanandan. It has been learnt that the Kerala Water Authority has given administrative and technical sanction for the project under pressure from the Industries Department, overriding objections from senior officials of the Irrigation Department.
Drinking water needs
According to anti-pipeline action council chairman and farmers’ leader G. Sivarajan, the project was mooted by the UDF government in 2013 but had been kept in abeyance following strong resistance from general public. “At present 74 mld of water is released from the Malampuzha reservoir to meet the drinking water requirements whereas the actual daily requirement is 92 mld. The government which limited the daily release of drinking water to 74 mld due to poor availability is now planning to release 20 mld for industrial purpose,” points out Mr. Sivarajan.
Action council convener Boban Mattumantha says the move is detrimental to paddy farmers. “During the last cultivation season, crops spread in 19,000 hectares were lost as the government refused to release the Malampuzha waters for needs other than drinking purposes. The District Collector had issued orders directing farmers not to cultivate the second crop in 13,000 hectares. Now the authorities are setting aside water for industrial purpose despite their earlier stand that the storage was insufficient even for drinking needs,” he says.
Water for 50 days only
As of now, water level in the dam is 111.7 m against the total the capacity of 115.6 m. The storage is sufficient to meet the drinking water needs for another 50 days.
The people are planning a protest here on Friday evening.
Meanwhile, Kinfra officials said any delay in releasing Malampuzha water would affect the commissioning of the mega food processing plants under construction in the park.