PALAKKAD: The drying up of Bharathapuzha , ahead of summer which has affected the drinking water supply in Palakkad, Malappuram and Thrissur district, is due to the failure to ensure minimum flow of water in the river when its waters were diverted to Tamil Nadu under the inter-state Parambikulam Aliyar Project ( PAP ) between Kerala and Tamil Nadu 59 years ago in 1958.The PAP agreement aimed at beneficial sharing of waters of the river basins of Bharathapuzha, Chalakudypuzha and Periyar was signed on May 29, 1970 with retrospective effect from November 9, 1958.The pact is caught up in a controversy between the two states over the implementation of its provisions and the clause for its renewal after 30 years.The pact is open for review after 30 years and should have been renewed in 1988. But both the states could not reach an agreement on it despite many meetings on it at both the official and political levels.The drawback of the pact is that while it agreed to divert Bharathapuzha water, it failed to ensure minimum flow into the river.“The need to protect the river was not given due importance. The question was not one of getting water to irrigate a few thousand acres of land, but how to save the river basin as Bharathapuzha”, said PS Panikkar , secretary, Bharathapuzha protection committee.“It allowed only 7.25 tmc of water for the Chitturpuzha, a tributary of the Bharathapuzha, for irrigation. This resulted in Palakkad becoming drought-prone,” he said.Palakkad is now reeling under severe drought and drinking water scarcity.Both states accuse each other of violating the pact. Kerala had accused Tamil Nadu of diverting a major share of the waters from these three basins.“Kerala is not getting any water from the Parambikulam group of reservoirs, the biggest storage system of PAP,” he said.The Kerala assembly ad hoc committee on the Parambikulam-Mullaperiyar water-sharing agreement, in its 1994 report, said Kerala had received only 15.912 tmc of water as against its due share of 41.75 tmc.It demanded more water in the Manacadavu weir for the Chitturpuzha for paddy cultivation and drinking water supply especially in summer months. Kerala also sought to get the surplus waters available in the Sholayar and Parambikulam dams.This could be used to release it to Bharathapuzha during summer to save the river and its drinking water sources, Panikkar said.But some of those closely following the implementation of the PAP agreement during the last 59 years feel that if both States take a realistic stand on the availability of the water and its sharing as per the agreement, the issues could be solved and save Bharathapuzha during summer months from drying up.