Pathanamthitta, which was on the edge for the past four days, heaved a sigh of relief on Monday as water started to recede from the inundated parts of the district.
Although the overall situation improved slightly, the operation to evacuate people stranded in flooded areas to safer locations and providing relief to them is still on. “There is an improvement in the overall situation. Water is receding, albeit slowly and the reservoirs are well within the limits. But people should exercise caution in view of the rain forecast,” said K. Raju, Minister of Forests and Wildlife Protection.
The Minister convened a meeting at the Revenue Divisional Office (RDO) in Thiruvalla to review the district’s flood preparedness. RDO Vinay Goyal and Mathew T. Thomas, MLA, also attended.
Meanwhile, water level in the Pampa reservoir, the shutters of which had opened a day earlier, was brought down to the upper crest level by Monday evening. “As against the earlier decision to bring down the water level to 982 meters from 983.5 meters, it has now been decided to keep the same at 981.36 meters in view of more showers,” the Collector said.
Though the dam’s opening had put the district on a high-alert, water level in the downstream did not rise above the expected levels. “Water level in Pampa rose by just 40 cm in the Ranni side while the CWC river gauge station at Malakkara showed just a 10 cm rise,” the Collector added.
The low-lying areas, especially in Mallapally and Thiruvalla taluks, continued to be in deluge. The district currently has 127 relief camps, which together accommodated 5,166 persons from 1,607 families.
Traffic along the Sabarimala route from Attathodu to Chalakkayam was banned as the road developed cracks following the heavy showers. The Collector entrusted the PWD (Roads) Executive Engineer to open a temporary route to facilitate movement to and from the Sabarimala temple.
Preliminary estimates suggested that the district sustained a crop loss to the value of ₹5.64 crore over the past three days.
