As the deluge-hit people of Kerala are going through the difficult task of rebuilding their lives and homes, allegations have come up that the unprecedented disaster was partially man-made and was the result of faulty dam management. The Congress-led Opposition has demanded a judicial probe into the alleged mismanagement and failures.
It is being pointed out that the magnitude of the floods might not have been this huge if the authorities had taken proper care for maintaining water storage in major reservoirs at safe levels instead of opening the shutters of big dams simultaneously leading to unimaginable swelling of rivers causing terrible floods and massive destruction.
“It is a man-made disaster,” said Opposition leader in the State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala who held the CPI(M)-led lDF Government, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) which owns and manages the hydel reservoirs, and the State Dam Safety Authority responsible for a major part of the deluge in which over 250 people have died and 30 have gone missing.
While landslides triggered by incessant rains sowed death and destruction in the State’s mountainous regions from August 8 to 19, many lives were lost and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged by floods on the banks and basins of major rivers swollen by the water spewed down simultaneously from the big dams at a rate of millions of gallons per second.
The KSEB is accused of failing to maintain safe levels in its reservoirs by releasing water at the right time by properly analysing and understanding weather forecasts so that it could have avoided the situation of opening the shutters of all major dams – 37 of them – at the same time after all of them were filled to or beyond capacity, which enhanced the magnitude of the disaster.
The board is also charged with failing to issue proper notice and alerts to the people well advance while opening the dams as a result of which they did not get time to move to safety leading to the loss of several lives. This had also led to heavy loss of livestock, essential items, household implements, important documents and certificates.
Several panchayats in Wayanad district, Aluva, Paravur, Kaladi and many other regions in Ernakulam, Ranni, Kozhenchery and Pamba in Pathanamthitta, Chengannur and Kuttanad in Alappuzha and all the villages and towns on the banks and the basin of the Chalakkudy river in Thrissur district were hit by floods triggered by the water released from major dams.
It is said that the KSEB had opened the big dams like Cheruthoni in the giant three-dam Idukki hydel reservoir system, Idamalayar dam, the eight dams of the Sabarigiri hydel project in Pathanamthitta district, Sholayar and Peringalkuthu dams in Thrissur district and the Banasurasagar in Wayanad district without taking precautions or informing the people.
The Wayanad District Collector, chairman of the district Disaster Management Authority, had complained that he was not informed of the opening of the Banasurasagar dam. Even a CPI(M) MlA, Raju Abraham of Ranni, complained, “I had asked them to open the Sabarigiri project’s dams only after issuing proper warning. They did not take it seriously.”
The biggest alleged callousness of the KSEB and Dam Safety Authority was seen in the case of the Idukki dam with a maximum storage level of 2,403 feet. When the level touched 2,396 feet as back as on July 31, the plan was to open the shutters at 2,398 feet. But the board delayed the process till August 9 by which time things had allegedly got out of control.
When newsmen asked Power Minister MM Mani, a native of Idukki, about the situation on July 9, minutes before opening the Idukki shutters for what the KSEB said was a trial run, his response was, “Should the dam be opened just for giving you stuff for newsij If we release water, you would criticize us for not keeping water for producing power in the summer.”
Demanding a judicial inquiry into the whole issue, Ramesh Chennithala said, “The KSEB should have known about the situation. The Power Minister is responsible. The Chief Minister should have known about it. Those responsible for this man-made disaster should be identified and prosecuted,” he said.
While State Chief Secretary Tom Jose admitted that there was a communication gap in relation to the opening of the Banasurasagar dam, KSEB chairman NS Pillai rejected the charges. In what is being seen as an affront at the flood victims, he said, “If we had the capacity to predict floods, we would have saved all the people.”
Claiming that there had not been any lapse in abiding to the Water Management Protocol, he said, “Proper warnings and the three-stage alerts were issued before opening the dams. I have with me the records proving that the dams were not opened in one go but it was done stage by stage and that we had completed all the required preparations before opening the dams”
Dam Safety Authority Chairman Justice (Retired) CN Ramachandran Nair said, “All the concerned officials had been informed and people were warned before the dams were opened. There has been no failure from the part of the Authority. This is a natural disaster. The allegations are part of a tendency to blame somebody whenever problems come up.”