Photo: Ponmudi Hill Station, Trivandrum.
With rivulets originating from Ponmudi and feeding Kallar river drying up indicating a severe drought season ahead, the hill station is facing an unprecedented water crisis.Despite a steep surge in the number of tourists this year, the scenic locale has already been hit by severe water shortage causing concerns to the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation run-resort and the government guest house, the only available options for stay and food at Ponmudi. To deal with the crisis, water is being brought from the far away Aruvikkara reservoir in private tankers. Normally, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) used to collect and purify water for the streams for supplying to the resort as well as the guest house. But this year, many of the streams have already become non-existent.
Ponmudi, a Panoramic View
"The water is now being supplied in private tankers, which costs Rs 2,500 per trip. When Ponmudi has emerged as a tourist destination from the shadows of Kovalam and Kanyakumari, it is disheartening that such basic issues come to haunt us. We have been facing similar situation earlier too, but only by March-April. It is first time that we are facing shortage of water in December, which is the peak tourist season here," sources at the KTDC-run Golden Peak resort at Ponmudi said.When contacted, KTDC managing director N Prasanth said that the organization was gearing up to revamp and re-launch Ponmudi because of the surge in tourist visits, but the water issue has become a serious glitch. "Over the last five months we have been able to drastically improve the facilities at our property and also effectively market it. The water shortage has come as a bolt from the blue. Our operational expense has sky rocketed due to this," he said.
KTDC Resorts, Ponmudi
On Christmas day alone, the number of tourists visiting Ponmudi was around 4,000, and the collection at the check-post was more than Rs 1,00,000. At least 500 guests visited the restaurant run by the KTDC. "The overall situation of drought is serious. But for Ponmudi, we have two options: one is the water supply from the stream and another one is a borewell which the KWA has constructed. Even when the stream got dried up, the bore well was the alternative.But the heavy winds over the past three-four days had disrupted this. We will restore this in a couple of days," KWA managing director Ashok Kumar Singh told TOI.Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-27/thiruvananthapuram/36021538_1_ponmudi-water-shortage-kwa
