Water level increases in Tamil Nadu reservoirs

After the resurgence of South West monsoon especially in the neighbouring southern states, the reservoirs in Tamil Nadu including Stanley reservoir in Mettur and Bhavanisagar has been receiving good inflow in the last couple of days, which raised hopes of the farmers to carry irrigation activities.

The continuous downpour made Karnataka to release more than 42,000 cusecs from Krishnarajasagar and Kabini reservoirs on Saturday evening. 

The water has reached Mettur, the lifeline of delta farmers, on Sunday and its level has touched 90 feet as against the total capacity of 120 feet.

Though several plea from the delta farmers to release water for irrigation, Tamil Nadu government is in no hurry to open the shutters since it is waiting that the water level reaches about 100 feet. 

“We can’t release water for irrigation till the level reaches 100 feet in Mettur reservoir.The Agriculture department has requested that the shutters be open in the last week of August. The shutters may be raised in the meantime, if there is a flood-like situation and require quantity of water released by Karnataka,” a senior PWD official said.

Similarly, the inflow in Bhavanisagar dam also increased considerably. “The water level has reached above 80 feet mark against its capacity of 105 feet,” the official pointed out. The high water level in Mullaperiyar, Parambikulam and Aliyar which are located in Kerala also increased the water supply to Tamil Nadu. 

On Sunday, the water storage in Mullaperiyar stood at 119 feet against its permissible level of 142 feet while Parambikulam stood at 34 feet as against the total capacity of 72 feet.