Rains will wash Kerala's power problems away

The eight-day belated monsoon which started in Kerala on Monday is expected to ease the acute power crisis faced in the state.

The Kerala government had on the same day imposed 100 per cent load shedding for industrial consumers, anticipating further delay in the arrival of the monsoon -- the water in storage was enough to meet the state's power requirements only till June 15.

Now with the monsoon in, the crisis seems to have passed. Load shedding is expected to be eased after two weeks when the water level in the reservoirs reach a comfortable level.

The monsoon, says Indian Meteorological Department (Thiruvananthapuram) Director V K Gangadharan, was strong and widespread in all stations north of the state capital. In Thiruvananthapuram the clouds are comparatively weaker. Last year too, he said, the monsoon was quite weak in the initial 10 days.

The rains, which have covered almost 80 per cent of Kerala, will move north and reach New Delhi by June 15. By mid-July, it will cover the whole country.

The weathermen have forecast a normal monsoon this year. Gangadharan said satellite pictures indicated 92 per cent rainfall during the season. The average rainfall Kerala receives is 305 cms. Barring 1987, when there was a 31 per cent shortfall, the state has always had normal rainfall.

The monsoon normally sets in by June 1. The current delay, weathermen say, was because of lower temperatures experienced in central India this summer. The delay, however, would not affect the total volume of rainfall, Gangadharan said.

The heaviest monsoon the state received in the last twenty years was in 1981 when 251 cms of rainfall was recorded. The leanest season was in 1976 when the total rainfall was just 143 cms.

Barring one occasion in 1973, the monsoon has always arrived in Kerala before June 15 in the last 25 years. In 1973, the monsoon set in only on June 18.