Mullaiperiyar dam releasing water; heavy rains likely in Kerala

IDUKKI: Major dams like Mullaperiyar and Banasursagar are still open and discharging water downstream with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday predicting widespread and isolated heavy rainfall in Kerala during the day and on August 11.

Banasursagar dam in Wayanad was at red alert water level status and three of its gates were opened 10 centimeters (cm) each this morning spilling around 24 cumecs of water, district officials said.

In Mullaperiyar dam, which is managed by the Tamil Nadu government, 13 shutters were opened by 90 cm each to discharge around 8,980 cusecs of water, Idukki district officials said.

Cusecs is the volume of water discharged measured in cubic feet per second. While when the same is measured in cubic metre per second, it's called cumecs. One cusec is equivalent to 28.32 litre per second.

Meanwhile, water in the Periyar river basin was rising at certain areas and falling or holding steady in others in the morning, officials said.

Water level at all the stations on the Periyar river were below their respective flood warning markings, they said.

Periyar river has been receiving excess water from Idamalayar and Cheruthoni dams.

The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) on Tuesday had said there are 213 active relief camps while most of them are in Alappuzha district (45), Thrissur 43 and Pathanamthitta 39. There are 9,275 people accommodated in the camps.

From July 31 to August 9, Kerala has been witnessing heavy rains, resulting in the death of 22 people. While seven were still missing and five got injured, the SDMA had said and added that 58 houses were fully damaged while 412 suffered partial damage.