Drought in Kerala

Kerala has also never been spurned by rain gods in over a century as in the past six months. With both the southwest and northeast monsoons not making an appearance except for a few occasional showers, ‘God’s own country’ is all set for its hardest drought in 115 years, and the worst since the state’s formation in 1956.

The regional meteorological department has recorded sobering numbers. There was 33.7% deficiency in the southwest monsoon between July and September. But the real villain was the northeast monsoon between October and December that fell short by 61%.

“Both the monsoon systems failing is very rare, and a lot is due to the cyclonic systems that developed in the Bay of Bengal like Vardah, which hit Chennai and the Andhra coast. While last year, we got 20% more rains than normal from the northeast monsoon, this time it’s running on a negative scale,” said S Sudevan, director, State Meteorological Department.

The worst affected districts are Thrissur and Palakkad, both normally drought-prone, where dryness and crop-wilting are common. But this time, the farmers here were in for a shock

Throughout Kerala, the groundwater situation is also getting dire. Reports coming from reservoirs and dams across the state have also been discouraging. Almost all reservoirs have been recording steep falls in water level continuously.

“The situation is certainly going from bad to worse. At this rate, the water will last for only the next 90 days in most places. We are taking all possible measures, but irrigation is perhaps the last thing on our minds now as we need to save water for all other purposes,” said A Shainamol, managing director, Kerala Water Authority (KWA).