Kerala Water Authority officials want Peppara dam storage to be increased till 2030

Thiruvananthapuram: Though monsoon showers have blessed Peppara dam, a section of Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials claimed that it was important to raise the dam’s storage levels to meet the needs until 2030. As per estimates, during the construction of dam in 1983 it was expected to meet the needs of city only till 2020. In order to ensure that it meets the city’s needs for another 10 years, maximum storage level at Peppara dam has to be raised to 110.5 metre, officials said. It took several years of efforts for officials to convince forest officials and state government to maintain the increase in the maximum water storage level to 107.5.

Levels were raised by three metres during the tenure of Biju Prabhakar as the district collector. Peppara dam sits on wildlife sanctuary of the same name and hence, a Central government nod would be required to raise the levels further. No environment impact study has been conducted, but the KWA officials contest that would not affect wildlife massively. “Continuing to raise storage levels or building new dams might not solve the issues permanently. We need to be able to filter and reuse wastewater generated. However, until such an infrastructure was created, we need to entirely meet city’s requirement from Peppara,” said a senior official.

Meanwhile, another section of officials think that raising height won’t be necessary. “Channelling water from Neyyar to Peppara during times of need itself is enough to meet the city’s need," another official added. Several healthy rivulets inside the forest on the Southern and North Eastern side of Peppara dam had helped Peppara dam to fill up during showers last week.