The decision of the Kerala government to withdraw excess water from the Siruvani dam in violation of the 1973 agreement is seen by officials here as an arm-twisting tactic by that State to make Tamil Nadu give more water from the Aliyar reservoir.
Irked by withdrawal of about 80 cusecs from Siruvani, the District Collector, the Public Works Department and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) have sent a report to the Chief Minister who would was likely to take it up with his Kerala counterpart, sources said. As per the August 19, 1973 agreement on Paraimbikular Aliyar Project (PAP) the sharing of Siruvani waters, Tamil Nadu had to give five cusecs of water daily throughout the year (July 1 to June 30) to save the flora and fauna down stream.
Water flow blocked
However, Kerala suddenly started drawing a large quantum of water from Siruvani from the night of February 20. Starting with 50 cusecs on day one, which was nine times more than the entitlement, as of Saturday morning, Kerala had been drawing 90 cusecs.
The dam is in Kerala. Kerala was constructing make shift check dams using sand bags at three places to prevent water from reaching the Pilloor dam in Tamil Nadu, the officials said.
This is likely to cause stress on TWAD board as the existing water level of 40 ft as against the full reservoir level of 49.5 ft would get drained fast. This could lead to severe drinking water crisis in Coimbatore city and its suburbs in April. The south-west monsoon was expected to set in only by May end or early June.
Distress sharing
As far as the PAP agreement was concerned, even in the absence of a distress sharing formula, Tamil Nadu had given a reasonable and judicious quantum of water to the neighbour, say officials here.
Under the agreement that comprises five major dams and a few smaller dams, average yield per year is 48.5 tmcft and Tamil Nadu ought to have 19.55 tmcft both from the Sholayar and the Aliyar.
With another four months to go for the completion of the water year, Tamil Nadu had already released 10.5 tmc out of the 12.3 tmc from Sholayar and another 5 tmc out of 7.25 tmc from the Aliyar through Manacadavu.
What remains to be released is 1.8 tmc from the Sholayar and 2.5 tmc from the Aliyar through Manacadavu, say officials. But Kerala was asking for the remaining 2.5 tmc to be released immediately to save the paddy crop in Chithoor and Palakkad belt of northern Kerala. The officials here say there is not enough water in the Aliyar to be released to Kerala.
The demand of the neighbouring State could not be met as the meagre storage could barely meet the drinking water needs on both sides.
