With acute drinking water scarcity making normal life difficult in almost all parts of Chittur taluk in Palakkad, the demand to revive the three-decades-old Kuriarkutty-Karapara multipurpose project is gaining momentum.
Pending with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests all these years, the ₹550-crore project, on implementation, could ensure safe drinking water for the whole taluk apart from irrigating 29,000 acres, besides generating 198 million units of power a year.
According to P.M.Y. Mansoor, a former engineer with the Irrigation Department and the secretary of the Chittur Pourasamithy, a mass memorandum seeking steps on the part of State government for environmental clearance for the project has already been submitted to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Efforts are on to convince the Union Ministry about the inevitability of the project. “The non-release of water from the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project by Tamil Nadu has landed people here in dire straits. The paddy farmers are the worst affected. If the government could remove the hurdles in the implementation of the Kuriarkutty-Karapara project, it will be a great relief to the rice bowl of Kerala,” says Mr Mansoor.
According to P. Krishnankutty, a farmers’ leader, the project, on completion, could release 4.88 tmc of water to the arid regions of Chittur.
It has been caught in red tape owing to the lack of political will on the part of successive State governments, he says.
Other than ensuring better drinking water supply, the project can irrigate most parts of Kozhinjampara, Muthalamada, Chemmanampathy and Elavanchery grama panchayats While the project area receives an average annual rainfall of about 3,600 mm, the Kozhinjampara region receives less than 500 mm a year.
As per the latest proposal, the project implementation will submerge an area of 839.56 hectares, of which 746.972 ha is covered by plantations and 76.904 ha by reserve forests, including 14.30 ha of the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary.
Officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board say the project is not going to create problems for the Chalakudy basin because more than 14 tmc of water spills over from the Poringalkuthu reservoir during the monsoon months to the Chalakudy river.
The Chittur Pourasamithy wants the State government to submit a modified project report and put political pressure on the Centre to get sanction for it.
