Shutters of dams lowered as water level decreases

Thiruvananthapuram: As rain stayed away for two days, shutters of the dams in the district were lowered on Sunday. Subsequently, water level in Neyyar and Karamana rivers, on which the major dams were built, has come down.
Kerala Water Authority started to lower two shutters of Peppara dam on Karamana river on Sunday morning. “The water level has gone down to 107.28m. Since power is being generated, we have to maintain the levels. The disaster management authority has given us permission to close two shutters. These will be lowered gradually and completely closed by Monday,” said a KWA official.

Water level in Peppara dam had hit an all-time high of 109.5m on Saturday. However, KWA opened only three of the total six shutters of the dam to release the excess water.

Four shutters could be raised to a maximum of 16 feet. During heavy rainfall, the shutters were raised to 12 feet, leading to floods.

Water level in another dam on Karamana river – Aruvikkara dam – is 46.60m. Three shutters of the dam remain opened since the onset of monsoon.

Water level in Neyyar dam, on Neyyar river, was reduced to 83.7m after almost touching the full reservoir level two days ago. Now, all the four shutters of the dam were lowered by 1ft.

The capital district received an excess rainfall of 46.06 % this monsoon. While the average rainfall was 659.5 mm, the district got around 963.28 mm till Sunday.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted only light rain in the district in the coming days.