#Ajayan

Kochi | Scanty rainfall that has pushed Kerala to a 44 per cent deficiency this monsoon season, sinking water levels in rivers, dams and canals and little hopes of any active spells this season, things paint a gloomy and droughty picture for the State. Fears of an electricity crisis looms large over the State. Hopes are now pinned on the northeast monsoon, which weathermen predict is a possibility in the wake of El Nino. It is a climate pattern of abnormal warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean which can suppress monsoon rainfall and lead to drought.

August is when rainfall is bountiful in Kerala. But the situation this August is such that till date the State has received just 25.1 mm of rain as against an expected 254.6 mm which is an over 90 per cent drop.

From June 1, the advent of the southwest monsoon, the State has so far received 877.2 mm of rain as against a normal of 1572.1 mm, a deficiency of 44 per cent which weather experts say could reach 60 per cent by the end of August, the worst ever in the State’s history. They point out that there have been no indications of any good spell in the days ahead.

Worse still is the situation in the power-generation dams. The combined average water level of all the reservoirs in the State as on date is just 36 per cent. The largest rainfall deficiency is in Idukki district, a house of reservoirs, which has received just 775.4 mm rainfall as against a normal of 1,956.5 per cent which is a 60 per cent deficiency.

The Kerala State Electricity Board which spends around Rs 10 crore daily for purchase of power from outside will have to go in for a higher buying if the situation continues which would mean passing on the additional burden to the people.

The scene is such that farmers in Palakkad district, the State’s rice granary, are now forced to pump water to the paddy fields which have started drying up.

District                 Actual         Normal       Deviation

                              (mm)          (mm)          %      

Kasargod             1662.8       2325.9    -29

Kannur                 1510.4       2143.5    -30

Wayanad               894.5       1996.8     -55

Kozhikode             958.7        2072.3    -50

Malappuram          845.8       1550.7     -45

Palakkad                612.1      1217        -50

Thrissur                  867.4      1661.5     -48

Ernakulam            1013         1619.9     -37

Idukki                      775.4      1956.5     -60

Alappuzha              833.7      1219        -28

Kottayam                724.2      1440.8     -50

Pathanamthitta       845.7      1160.9       -9

Kollam                    633.4        905.3     -30

T’puram                  340.3        592.9     -43