The Water Resources Department will construct a dam at Pattissery in Kanthallur village in Idukki district to make use of 3 tmc of the 30 tmc of water allotted to the State from the basin of the Pambar, a tributary of the Cauvery, in accordance with the final judgment of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal on water sharing.
Minister for Water Resources P.J. Joseph told The Hindu on Wednesday that the entire water share would be utilised by taking up various projects. The priority was to finish the work in a time frame so that the farmers of the vegetable cultivating village of Kanthallur would benefit.
The Pambar is an inter-State river that originates from Anamudi and flows eastwards, joining the Chinnar to reach the Amaravathy reservoir in Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Joseph said separate projects were under way on tributaries of the Pambar at Thalayar, Chengalar, and Vattavada to utilise the entire water share allotted to the State. The Pattissery dam would be a part of it and augment irrigation facilities at Kanthallur and Vattavada, known as the vegetable bowl of Kerala.
The dam, a Rs.20-crore project, would have a height of 23 ft and a length of 135 m. There would be a canal of 8.5 km, which would irrigate 240 hectares of land at Kanthallur.
Veggies, fruitsAn integrated project was on under the initiative of the Agriculture Department at Kanthallur and Vattavada to bring the two villages completely under vegetable and fruit cultivation.
The Hindu had reported that Eucalyptus grandis that had encroached upon large areas in the two villages were being removed to facilitate the vegetable cultivation. Though focus was on promotion of vegetable and fruit cultivation, rice and sugarcane cultivation too would benefit from the irrigation augmentation plan.
The construction of the Pattissery dam would be inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on November 3.
