The Kabani basin under the Cauvery division of the Water Resources Department is gearing up to construct a dam across the Moolithodu rivulet, a tributary of the Kabani, in Edavaka grama panchayat, to tap a small percentage of water awarded by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal a few years ago.
The department has begun a geographical survey for the project and it would be completed in a month, K.V. Unnikrishnan, executive engineer (Cauvery division ), told The Hindu . The project envisages collecting 0.3 tmcft of water after constructing an earthen dam across the Moolithodu rivulet to irrigate 1,411 hectares of land in Thondarnadu, Edavaka, and Vellamunda grama panchayats in the district, Mr. Unnikrishnan said.
A meeting of the residents in the area would be convened soon to clarify doubts regarding the project, he said. A detailed project report would be prepared after a survey on the topographical, geological, geophysical, hydrological and environmental impact of the project. The report would be submitted to the Central Water commission for its final approval of the project, he said.
The tribunal had awarded 30 tmcft of water to the State from the three river basins of the Cauvery such as the Kabani in Wayanad (21 tmcft), the Bhavani at Attappady in Palakkad (6 tmcft) and the Pambar in Idukki (3 tmcft) but, the government was yet to formulate any projects to utilise the water allotted to the State.
As every year, 96 tmcft of water flows into the Cauvery from its catchment area in Wayanad, the government plans to construct dams across seven streams in the district such as the Kadamanthodu, Thondar, Chundalipuzha, Noolpuzha, Kallampathy, Thirunelly, and Peringottupuzha to utilise the water allotted by the tribunal.
The proposals for two dams in Wayanad across the Chundali and Kadamanthodu was frozen a few years ago after a public protest. However, the government is adopting measures to implement the Kadmanthodu project with the support of the public in the wake of the desertification process that has started in grama panchayats such as Mullankolly, Pulpally, and Poothadi on the Kerala-Karnataka border.
The Banasura Sagar dam, the largest earthen dam in the country and the second largest in Asia, in the Kabani river basin was built to support the Kakkayam hydroelectric power project. It was also aimed at providing water for irrigation but the target is yet to be achieved even after ₹53 crore was spent on the project. The full potential of the Karapuzha irrigation project is also yet to be tapped owing to technical reasons.
