Thread by @jamewils

We managed 6 reservoirs in the Chalakudy river with close co-ordination with TN PWD this August first week & September very heavy rainfall.

Environmental and River Protection Groups blasted us! for WHAT?

Is it for prudent management w/o flooding the river?

#KeralaRains2020

The very same people created panic in public about predicting a doomsday & repeat of 2018 floods when our reservoirs had some carry over storages before beginning summer due to less utilisation due to COVID19.

Many people called me over phone as they lost sleep over these hype!

First of all these environment groups has lots of agenda, they were only blaming KSEB's Poringalkuthu and Kerala Sholayar dams in Chalakudy basin.

Totally silent about TN Sholayar, Parambikulam, Tunacadavu & Peruvarippllom dams of TN in the same basin.

selective amnesia?

Let's discuss and debate what happened during this September heavy rainfall event first.

Because these people who dressed as champions of public cause actually spread so much hype and false propaganda,

I don't know is it because of ignorance or with an ulterior intent.

I respect difference of opinion and people from other domains like environment and ecology, who has very divergent view points than a reservoir management expert or hydrologist.

But if they use falsified data and create fear perceptions, I have no hesitation to call out them

First pls understand the river and reservoirs in the Chalakudy basin.

This 130 km long river is having a total catchment area of 1704 sq km out of which 300 sq km lies in TN and rest in Kerala.

It has an average annual yield of more than 100 TMC but most of it goes to sea

Why?

Because this is the most steepest river in the Kerala and we have only created limited storage space to store the waters in this basin.

Live storage with Kerala is just 6.367 TMC in its 2 reservoirs. TN stores 19.040 TMC and out of which 14.163 TMC is inside Kerala.

So the 6 reservoirs in this system stores only 25.407 TMC out of the yield of more than 100 TMC.

Understand that Kerala's storages at just 6.367 TMC to meet its lean season demands.

Soon after State Re-organisation, there were discussions to share the waters, thus came PAP Agt

As per the above Agt, TN can divert water from two more reservoirs from Periyar viz. Upper Nirar and Lower Nirar to TN Sholayar, and from there to Parambikulam and then to Tunacadavu and after power generation, this goes to Thirumoorthy dam through a 50 km canal & tunnel system

So the system receives around 13 TMC import from Periyar also during the monsoon times, 85% of its during monsoon times.

The system is the very reason of the agricultural prosperity we are seeing at Pollachi region in Coimbatore District of TN.

Many wonder why Kearla allowed TN to build and operate 3 reservoirs inside KER when we hardly store just 6% of the river flow?

I too was perplexed when I put in charge of managing this system.

I then delve deep into the correspondences then, thanks to Late Mohanakrishnan of TN

The first EMS Ministry's Irrigation & Law Minister was Late Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, who directed the engineers of KSEB to develop master plans for Periyar, Pamba and Chalakudy basins while other basin plans were developed by then PWD.

Let's see master plan for Chalakudy river

As per this master plan, Kerala planned 8 reservoirs in the river basin with a combined live storage capacity of 28.658 TMC and envisaged 351 MW power generation with an annual generation of 1350 MU.

This is the back ground at which Kerala permitted to store TN in its territories and allowed them to divert 16.5 TMC from Parambikulam Group and 2.5 TMC from TN Sholayar. In lieu of this, TN promised to ensure 12.3 TMC for Kerala at KL Sholayar & fill KL reservoir twice an year

Why Kerala Government decided to alter Kerala Sholayar HE Project formulated to discharge into Idamalayar river to Chalakudy itself discarding its power benefits?

Because Chalakudy was almost dry is summer & people then demanded a storage dam at Sholayar.

Surprised?

Look at this small #thread from this tweet onwards to understand how people seen reservoirs in that period.

Now there are "experts" selling a fantasy to you that Athirappjlly was like Niagara Falls in Summer before these reservoirs.

https://twitter.com/jamewils/status/1031945984408842240?s=19

I want every Malayalee should read and understand the contents of the above letter instead of being carried away with agenda of certain people

There is another myth peddled is that Chalakudy puzha had more than 600 cusecs of water before Kerala Sholayar comes. Read this mention that there is not even 100 cusecs in that river! No water to drink!

A full Kerala Sholayar on February 1st will ensure around 600 cusecs instead of the below 100 cusecs before its construction.

There are part of official records but no one hardly cares!

Let's come back to our news article, whether the storages in reservoirs resulted in flooding or will cause flooding.

They will flag once in a life time 2018 floods & ask us to empty reservoirs and deny water to people.

So see the hard facts here.

Out of the 4 reservoirs in Chalakudy spilled during this September rains. TN's Peruvarippallom & Tunacadavu are balancing reservoirs, they provide spillway only at Tunacadavu, these small twins did not spill but all 4 big spilled this time.

The storage position of all 6 reservoirs on 21.09.2020

KL Sholayar - 98.5%
TN Sholayar - 97.7%
Parambikulam - 99.4%
Tunacadavu - 98.4%
Peruvarippallom - 98.2%
Poringalkuthu - 78%

CWC G&D site at Arangali recorded a max of 818.5 cumecs, half of river capacity & no floods.

Rather than the storage position, it js how you distribute your reservoir spills & water gets from unregulated catchment dictates the flooding.

But we blame dams & ask to keep it empty.

So look at the condition when they had 50-60% capacity on August

Reservoir Statistics on 7.08.2018 for 3 biggies!

KL Sholayar - 56.6%
TN Sholayar - 93.2%
Parambikulam - 65.7%

Arangali site then recorded 954.1cumecs, higher than what it had during this time!

Only TN Sholayar spilled, but KL Sholayar consumed it without discharge to river.

What this means?

Different months bring different beasts of inflows. Don't look at simply rainfall alone. You should look at the spread of the rainfall over the catchment too.

IMD gives a broad picture & no dam can be managed with that info as some academicians think!

What we do is we meticulously analyse the historical inflows, plan and operate reservoirs for various dependable flows.

If you want to know how they are distributed, look at this inflow pattern of Kakki reservoir

Extreme flood is analogous to #COVID19. We can't keep the reservoirs empty anticipating once in a life time floods, water can be stored when it is available, to meet lean season demands.

No one can install & upkeep thousands of ventilators & ICU beds anticipate COVID19!

These are extremes..Let that sink in.

Extremes should be managed as crisis management, if you started to mix a crisis management and routine management, you may score some brownie points.

Instead of understanding nuances & limitations, you may invest in chimera, waste tax money

Keeping your reservoirs empty is like locking down the country. U will destroy the very livelihoods of farmers who rely these waters.

You may have your own agendas or ignorance. You will throw mud at us. But we at least have integrity & loyalty to the people, we will do our best

If you say, you represent the public, my answer is you are not representing them, you represent your agendas or ignorance.

Don't let these people to hijack narratives and spread lies, fantasies & myths.

Learn to understand nuances.

Unless Kerala invest in expertise in esoteric fields and do not let any Dick & Harry to set the agendas for the State masquerade as "experts or "guardian of public interest", we are going to be struck here!

Our future generations will laugh at us to listen to idiocy!

END.

PS:

Poringalkuthu dam commissioned in 1957.

After construction of KL Sholayar in 1965, the very Central Govt who facilitated 3 reservoirs inside KL for exclusive use of TN, denied permission for rest of our planned reservoirs.

So we suffer badly!

https://twitter.com/jamewils/status/1309771332796596224?s=19