Thiruvananthapuram: As climate change indicators go, this is a strong pointer: Into the second week of July, when the south west monsoon should be pouring torrents of rain on Kerala, there are only intermittent showers and the state is facing power cuts.
Kerala power minister M.M. Mani has warned that the power cuts may be introduced as soon as 10 days from now.
“We have no option because the rainfall shortage in the first 40 days of the monsoon season has been about 46 per cent, and a majority of the dams in the state hold very little water currently,” Mani said while explaining the predicament of the Kerala State Electricity Board, the government-owned power monopoly in the state.
Kerala relies heavily on hydro power, which is natural considering the bountiful rains it receives and the dozens of dams that have been constructed to harvest the water and produce electricity from it.
Many of the reservoirs, however, now hold as little as 10 per cent of their capacities, something unheard of during past monsoon seasons. Equally shocking is the fact that many households in the state are continuing to buy water even after the end of the summer, owing to the scanty rainfall.
As of Tuesday, the Idukki dam in the district that bears the same name, had only 13 per cent of water left in it. The Idukki dam is the biggest in the state, which relies on hydel power for over 70 per cent of its power requirement.
For Keralites who are facing the bleak days of power rationing, a second blow was delivered this week when the state electricity regulatory commission approved a hike in power tariff by roughly 11 per cent.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullappally Ramachandran said the state and federal governments were “looting the common man in Kerala” who is yet to recover from the debilitating blows of the big flood of 2018.
