Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stressed the need for the State to have better reservoirs with the capacity to control floods. “This is the lesson we need to learn from this monsoon,” he said in a pressnote issued here to refute the allegation raised by Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala that the floods last month were a man made disaster caused by opening all the dams in one go.
Official report
Citing the Central Water Commission’s report on the floods in Kerala, Mr.Vijayan who is currently in the US for treatment said the state had received 14000 million cubic metres of water through rains while the dams had the capacity to store only 2280 million cubic metres. He said Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala was trying to create a false impression among the public that the Government was responsible for the havoc caused by the floods.
The pressnote maintained that the dams in fact had stored up a bulk of the rain water and released only a part of it, thereby preventing a much bigger flood than what had occurred. “In the case of the Idukki dam, the volume of water that flowed into the reservoir between August 9 and 22 was 999 million cubic meter while the spill was only 827 million cubic meter. During the same period, 425 million cubic meter flowed into the Kakki - Anathodu reservoir, of which, only 379 million cubic meter was spilled. The situation was the same in the case of Idamalayar and Pampa dams as well”.
Terming Mr.Chennithala’s allegations as a bunch of lies, he said the 16 dams under the Irrigation department and the 58 under the Electricity department were opened on different dates over a period over four months from May.
Mr.Vijayan said all the dams were opened after issuing timely notifications and warnings.
He reiterated that the floods in Wayanad occurred due to excessive rains and that it had nothing to do with the release of water from the Banasurasagar earthen dam which was spilling excess water into the Kabani river from July 14 onwards. The flooding in Ranni was caused by the incessant rain on August 14 and not the release of water from the Pampa and Kakki dams, he asserted.
Mr.Vijayan accused the Opposition of raising baseless allegations to sabotage the mammoth flood relief efforts in the State and disrupt the unity among the public.
