Government taking steps to tackle drought

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Water Resources Mathew T. Thomas told the Assembly on Tuesday that the government was taking a number of steps to mitigate drought in the State.

Replying to the debate on the demands for grants for Water Supply and Sanitation and Irrigation, the Minister said that rainfall during South West monsoon was deficient by 32.7 per cent. There was significant drop in storage in various irrigation reservoirs. In one case, it was more than 80 per cent.

Mr. Thomas said that construction of temporary and permanent check dams, clearance of mud from water sources, replacement of old pipelines, repair of pumps and speeding up water supply projects nearing completion were being done to tackle impending drought.

He said that the government proposed to undertake rejuvenation of 9453 ponds out of a total of about 41000 ponds in the State.

He said that a proposal to turn the KWA into a bulk supplier of water with local bodies playing bigger role in distribution was under consideration of the government. The government had already announced that it proposed to achieve a turn-around of the Water Authority over five years without raising tariffs.  The drinking water bottling plant of KWA, under construction at Aruvikkara near here, would be commissioned in April next year.

He said that the government proposed to ensure that every panchayat is having a water treatment plant at its service. This would require an investment of Rs. 5000 crore.

The Minister said that the government was taking up several projects in the Kabani and Pambar basin to use its share of Cauvery waters. Check dams were planned on the Bhavani River.

Mr. Thomas said that all the inter-State water agreements had worked to the detriment of Kerala. The government was trying to review the agreements with mutual consent.

The Opposition created noisy scenes in the Assembly saying that the Minister was not answering their questions on inter-State water and other matters.  Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan said that Minister’s reply could not be turned into a question answer session.

Later, the House passed the demands for grants totalling Rs. 2603 crores for the current year.