Talks between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over water sharing from the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project ended in a deadlock, raising the risk of shortages for farmers in Kerala’s Palakkad and Chalakudy river basins in the coming months.
The meeting of the Joint Water Regulation Board was held at the Bhoothathankettu Dam premises to address disputes involving releases from the project, particularly at Sholayar and Manakadavu. Kerala officials said the state was not receiving its full share of water and that Tamil Nadu officials had not agreed to its demand for higher releases.
Kerala had initially sought 4.3 thousand million cubic feet of water at Manakadavu for the period from November to March, according to official sources cited in the report. The state later reduced its demand to 3.5 TMC after Tamil Nadu argued that rainfall had been deficient this year. Tamil Nadu has now agreed to release 1.5 TMC, an amount Kerala officials described as considerably lower than the release recorded in 2016, one of the worst drought years in recent times.
The dispute is linked to the movement of water from Tamil Nadu’s Sholayar and Parambikulam systems into Kerala’s Sholayar and subsequently into the Chalakudy river. A decline in releases along this route was not discussed in detail at the meeting, according to sources. Officials also disagreed over the calibration of water discharged into Kerala’s Sholayar after the renovation of the power plant there.
Farmers in parts of Palakkad and the Chalakudy river basin have expressed concern that the proposed release will not be sufficient to meet requirements in the coming months. They have urged the Kerala government to take up the matter with Tamil Nadu urgently at the political level.
Kerala officials are considering escalating the dispute to the political or government-secretary level, although they have raised concerns that this could result in further delays. Tamil Nadu officials, meanwhile, were pushing for political-level talks to break the impasse. Kerala officials also expressed apprehension that continued diversion of water from Upper Sholayar and Parambikulam could further delay releases to the state.
The immediate issue remains unresolved, with the two sides yet to agree on the volume of water to be released and the calibration of flows after the power plant renovation. Further discussions at the political or senior administrative level are expected to determine the next course of action.
