The State government’s move to release 20 mld (million litres per day) of water from the Malampuzha reservoir for industrial use, ignoring drinking and irrigation-related concerns of a major share of population in Palakkad district, is now being put to action with the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) starting the process of laying the pipeline.
Twenty-three loads of cast iron pipes were offloaded on Friday night at Panampulli, a little away from Kinfra’s upcoming food processing park.
Anti-Kinfra Pipeline Project Samiti chairman G. Sivarajan said the pipes had been sourced by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) from West Bengal following recommendations of an expert team that visited the area two weeks ago. Fearing resistance from the local community, the KWA was now bringing pipes late at night, he said. The Samiti would mobilise local people and prevent the offloading if the authorities continued with the project without addressing their concerns.
MLAs’ protest
The government move to revive the old multi-crore pipeline project has evoked strong protests not just from farmers but also from MLAs in the district, including CPI(M) veteran V.S. Achuthanandan and Janata Dal (Secular) State president K. Krishnankutty.
The Palakkad District Development Samiti has adopted a unanimous resolution seeking abandoning of the ₹33.3-crore project, citing acute water scarcity in the district.
Other than supporting the units in the food processing park, the pipeline would also meet the additional water requirements of the industrial park of Kinfra in Kanjikode.
Anti-project samiti convener Bobban Mattumantha said the KWA had given sanction for the project under intense pressure from the Industries department, overriding objections from senior officials of the Irrigation department.
Mr. Sivarajan said the project was mooted by the UDF government in 2013 but had been kept in abeyance following strong resistance.
“At present, 74 mld of water is released from the Malampuzha reservoir to meet drinking water requirements, whereas the actual 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,” said Mr. Sivarajan. The Samiti is of the opinion that the move will be detrimental to paddy farmers.
