Kerala opposes river link at Delhi meet

Minister for Culture and NORKA K. C. Joseph, Member of Parliament Jose K. Mani and Member of Assembly M. P. Vincent and Archbishop Andrews Thazhath at St. Peters Square, Vatican; gathered for attending the canonization ceremony.

Kerala Minister for Water Resources P. J. Joseph has reiterated the State’s opposition to the Pampa-Achencoil- Vaipar river linking scheme at a conference convened by the Union government for consensus on interlinking of rivers.

Addressing the conference in New Delhi, the Minister said consideration of environmental flows and its ecosystem response modelling had categorically proven that, in the case of small basin, inter-basin water transfer would only bring more harm than solving water scarcity.

Studies by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), Kozhikode, and IIT, Delhi, had shown that any proposal to link the Pampa and Achencoil rivers to the Vaipar was inherently unsustainable and against the principles of integrated water resources management.