Disaster management centre opened

The district administration opened a disaster management centre at the
Collectorate here on Thursday. Deputy Collector M.C. Venugopal
inaugurated the centre. A control room functioning round-the-clock
became functional at the centre. Village disaster management
committees have been formed in 23 fishing villages spread across 11
panchayats in three taluks in the coastal region of the district. Task
forces will be formed soon by training volunteers in various areas of
disaster management. Advanced disaster alert systems will be set up in
seven coastal villages and the district headquarters. The control room
can be reached at 0483- 2736320. The toll-free number of the control
room will be 1077. A demonstration and training session in disaster
management was organised at the Collectorate on Thursday.

The Hindu, June 26

Disaster management centre

A round-the-clock emergency operations centre will become operational
at the Collectorate shortly as part of the disaster mitigation
initiative. The centre will be equipped with modern equipment.

The Hindu, June 26

Groundwater data available for users

In Kerala, 30 per cent of the groundwater blocks are unsafe, that is,
they are either semi-critical, critical or overexploited. This is
against the national average of 18 per cent unsafe groundwater blocks.
This was indicated at a district-level Data Users' Workshop held by
the State Groundwater Department under the hydrology project.
Inaugurating the workshop, District Collector M. Beena said that
environmental factors need to be reviewed along with developmental
activities, especially in Ernakulam, where a lot of developmental
activities are going on. The data collected by the groundwater
department in this regard will be of good use for planning any major
activity, she said. The data collection on ground water had been going
on since the project was launched in 1997. But there was no deliberate
sharing of data with anyone. It was made available only when someone
asked. Dr. Beena said the data collected would be of much use in
planning developmental projects as they would provide more meaning
since they are more specific and locally relevant.

The Hindu, June 25

Rainfall deficit touches 37 per cent

Hopes of the monsoon getting back on the track now hinges on the
possible formation of a low pressure system over the Bay of Bengal off
the Andhra Pradesh coast towards the end of this week.
Low pressure
India Meteorology Department's weather charts on Wednesday showed
signs of an upper air circulation in the bay, and this can very well
develop into a low pressure system in a couple of days to ignite an
active phase of the monsoon over the peninsula, according to K.
Santhosh, Director of the Meteorology Centre here. The rainfall so far
this monsoon has been 37 per cent deficient in Kerala. Between June 1
and June 24, the State received an area-weighted rainfall of only 32
cm against a normal of 51 cm. The situation is comparable to the very
bad monsoon of last year, when rainfall deficiency at this stage of
the season was 38 per cent. All districts in the State are in rainfall
deficit at the moment.
Deficit percentage
The deficit is 49 per cent for Thiruvananthapuram; 50 for Kollam; 33
for Pathanamthitta; 28 for Kottayam; 19 for Alappuzha; 43 for Idukki,
27 for Ernakulam, 14 for Thrissur, 53 for Malappuram, 41 for Palakkad,
41 for Kozhikode, 45 for Wayanad, 26 for Kannur and 47 for Kasaragod.

The Hindu, June 25