KASARAGOD
Despite the presence of 12 rivers that flow across its terrain, Kasaragod district continues to face acute shortage of water during summer.
Though stringent measures adopted to combat the problem have improved the ground water level moderately, officials feel that there is a need for constructing dams in the district to mitigate the water crisis.
E. P. Rajmohan, Special Officer, Kasaragod Development Package, said that construction of dams at Kakkadavu, Moonamkadavu, and Payaswini, had been proposed to help mitigate the problem faced by the district.
Construction of just the Kakkadavu dam would benefit the catchment areas in Kayyur, Cheemeni, West Eleri, East Eleri in Kasaragod district and Cherupuzha, Peringome, and Vayakkara grama panchayat in Kannur district. It could also produce power with the construction of hydro electric power stations, he said.
Mr. Rajmohan said around 900 major and minor check dams, regulators, vented crossbars, saltwater intrusion regulators and other storage facilities had been constructed so far to increase the water storage capacity in the district. But this would not be enough to meet the increasing water requirements.
He said that the total water required for the district was 993 million cubic metres. However, there was a capacity to store only 30 million cubic metres of water.
“By increasing the water storage to 250 million cubic metre, the water demand can be mitigated, especially during the peak summer, “ he said. Unfortunately, there was not a single big dam in the district that could store huge quantities of water.
Mr. Rajamohan said 80% of the people would face water scarcity if there was no rain for two consecutive months. Most of the rivers became dry during summer. This was because of the steep terrains. The depletion of the topsoil had speeded up the process, he said.
O. Ratheesh, executive engineer, Ground Water Department, said the ground water level had increased from 10 cm to 3.5 metres in the district when compared with the past 10 years. This was due to good rainfall and improvement in the water storage capacity.
Construction of dams would help to increase the water level to a great extent and mitigate the water crisis, he said.
