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Time of India

Desilting of Aruvikkara dam starts, to up storage capacity

Thiruvananthapuram: With the aim of increasing Aruvikkara reservoir's capacity, thereby helping resolve the shortage of drinking water in the state capital, desilting the dam has begun and is expected to be completed within one year. The city depends on Aruvikkara reservoir for its water needs but silt has reduced its capacity by half. Divine Shipping Services, a Gujarat-based agency, has begun desilting work of the reservoir. The agency has to pay Rs 14 crore to Kerala Irrigation Infrastructure Development Corporation (KIIDC) for doing the work. In return, the agency can take possession of the huge quantity of sand, clay and silt being removed from the reservoir. The agency paid Rs 1.3 crore to KIIDC for the first phase of work. Completion of all work phases is expected in 12 months. "Sediments take up 25ft in the reservoir with 46ft depth and water occupies only about 11ft. One lakh cubic feet of sand, clay and silt are expected to be cleared in the first phase," said a KIIDC officer. "Due to massive deposition of silt, the dam's capacity decreased to 43%. The reservoir has a capacity to store 2 million cubic metres of water but presently, it can store only less than 1 million cubic metres," said a Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officer. Divine Shipping Services has divided the reservoir into eight sections by creating bunds using earth. Presently, the work of removing silt from two sections is underway. This is done without polluting water in the other sections to avoid disrupting the drinking water supply to the city. "After the first phase, the agency has to pay the remaining amount to continue work in the other sections. The work is closely monitored by a team of officials to prevent water in other sections getting polluted. There was a delay in beginning the work after it was awarded to the agency as KWA's permission was needed for cutting some trees inside the reservoir area," said the KIIDC officer. The official said that the reservoir was built in 1933 and it hasn't been desilted since then. "The reservoir carries the silt of 90 years. One can imagine how huge the quantity of deposited silt is. Once desiltation is done, the reservoir can store water to meet the city's needs for six months," the officer added. Clearing Deposit Aruvikkara reservoir depth- 46ft Sediments - 25ft Water depth - 11ft Divine Shipping Services has begun desilting work It has to pay Rs 14 crore to KIIDC Reservoir divided into 8 sections for desilting Work presently on in 2 sections