Shutters of Malampuzha, Mangalam dams raised further

Several rivers, including Kalpathy and Bharatapuzha, swollen as heavy rain continues in catchment areas

Shutters of Malampuzha and Mangalam dams were raised further on Thursday as it rained continually in the catchment areas.

Several rivers, including the Kalpathy and the Bharatapuzha, were swollen as intermittent rain brought a good amount of water into them.

The Malampuzha dam had opened its four shutters on Wednesday by 5 cm. As the inflow into the reservoir continued, the shutters were raised to 15 cm on Thursday morning, releasing 1,200 cubic metre of water a second.

‘Situation not alarming’

K. Balasankar, executive engineer in charge of Malampuzha dam, said the situation was not alarming. The water level at Malampuzha was at 114.04 metre at 6 p.m. on Thursday, a little over one-metre below the maximum level.

Malampuzha dam can contain maximum 226 million meter cube water. On Thursday evening, the dam’s reservoir had 198.46 million meter cube water, which was a little over 87 per cent of the capacity.

Six shutters of the Mangalam dam were raised to 30 cm as the inflow into the reservoir increased. Earlier, the dam’s shutters had been opened by 15 cm.

The water at Mangalam dam reached 77.80 metre level on Thursday. The dam’s maximum capacity is 77.88 metre. The dams of Kanhirapuzha and Walayar were opened last month. A steady outflow of water continued through those dams on Thursday too.

Irrigation authorities warned the people living on the banks of the Mukkaipuzha, Kalpathypuzha and Bharatapuzha to remain vigilant as more water was being discharged into the rivers.

Water level in other dams

The water level in the other dams in the district too rose on Thursday. When Chulliyar dam marked its water level at 148.21 metre, Pothundy dam marked it at 105.423 metre. Chulliyar dam has 154.08 metre capacity and Pothundy dam 108.204 metre capacity.

Meenkara dam marked its water level at 154.96 metre on Thursday. It has a capacity of 156.36 metre.

The Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC) at Mundur registered 160 mm rain in the first five days of this month. The heaviest rainfall was registered on Thursday (51.8 mm). On Wednesday, IRTC registered 39.8 mm rain, on Tuesday 24.4 mm, on Monday 24 mm, and on Sunday 20 mm rain.