Kerala - Kattappana   

Water level rises at Mullaperiyar

KATTAPPANA: The water level in the Mullaperiyar dam rose to 135.6 ft on Saturday in the wake of an increased rainfall in its catchment areas on Friday night.

The district administration had sounded two alerts at the three grama panchayats of Vandiperiyar, Upputhara and Ayyappancoil. The third alert will be sounded when the water reaches the highest maintained level of 136 ft.

The Mullaperiyar Samara Samithy, which is leading an agitation for the decommissioning of the century-old dam, will organise a blockade at Karuntharuvi Chappathu on the Kattappana-Kottayam route on Sunday in protest against the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the authorities towards measures to tackle emergencies.

A revenue official of the Peerumade taluk office, where a meeting was held recently to chalk out a plan of action, said the office was open round the clock to manage any crisis. However, it was yet to receive any information from the administration till Saturday afternoon.

The plan of action submitted to the District Collector includes setting up street-lights on the roads near the Periyar and control rooms at Karuntharuvi Chappathu and Manjumala. However, the delay in opening the control rooms and erecting street-lights at Vandiperiyar, Karuntharuvi Chappathu and Upputhara has come in for criticism. An office-bearer of the Mullaperiyar Samara Samithi said the street-lights should have been kept ready. Since the water level in the Idukki dam in the downstream of the Periyar was also rising, a concrete plan of action was needed, he said.

The official said the water level had remained at 135.1 ft for the past three days and a sudden increase was not expected as the rainfall in the catchment areas had declined after an initial spell of the northeast monsoon.

Water Resources Department executive engineer George Daniel who surveyed the dam told The Hindu that the increase in the water level was owing to heavy rain in the forest areas bordering Tamil Nadu. He said he had got inputs of “water inflow through the spillway and the actual level of water in the dam might be more than the figure released by the Tamil Nadu officials.”

The water level in the Idukki reservoir also increased with a 4.8 mm rainfall recorded in its catchment areas. The water level on Saturday stood at 2,377.95 ft, the full level being 2,403 ft.

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