With catchment areas of Cauvery river in Karnataka pounded by heavy rains leading to release of water in huge quantities from major dams, the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur in western Tamil Nadu is fast filling up.
Its storage capacity touched 90 feet on Monday, against the full reservoir capacity of 120 feet. The inflow at Mettur dam was 2.40 lakh cusecs per second and the outflow was 10,000 cusecs in the afternoon. “The outflow would be increased steadily,” Salem District Collector S A Raman told DH.
As a huge quantity of water was being released from Kabini, Krishnarajasagar and other reservoirs in Karnataka, the famous Hogenakkal falls in Tamil Nadu overflowed for the eighth consecutive day on Monday.
With Stanley Reservoir fast filing up, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to open the gates of Mettur Dam on Tuesday for 'Kuruvai' (short-term) paddy cultivation in the Cauvery delta region. Usually, water from Mettur dam is released on June 12, but it was not the case for the past eight years due to various reasons.
Last year, the water was released from the dam for irrigation on July 19. In a statement here on Monday, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said he would oversee the opening of the sluices of Stanley Reservoir at Mettur on Tuesday morning to facilitate Kuruvai crops in the delta region.
“Since rains in the Cauvery catchment areas are expected to continue for the next few days, keeping in mind the water that is expected to reach Mettur dam, I have instructed officials to open the gates of the reservoir on Tuesday for use by farmers in the Cauvery Delta region,” Palaniswami said.
He said the water released from Mettur dam will be stored in 700 wells, lakes and ponds for irrigation purposes.
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