Mettur dam all set to reach full capacity for third time this year

CHENNAI: Bringing cheer to the farmers in the Cauvery delta region, the water level at Stanley reservoir in Mettur, Salem, is continuing to rise and is inching close to the full capacity of 120 feet on Tuesday.

With abundant rainfall in the catchment areas in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu this monsoon season, the storage in the dam has reached full capacity three times this year. Despite consistent discharge of water for irrigation, the water level remains high in the dam, which has buoyed the farming community’s mood.

During the southwest monsoon, the dam reached full capacity twice, following which water was discharged for irrigation. Though there was a sharp fall in the level owing to this, the dam once again reached full capacity after the substantial rainfall over the past 50 days.

Also, due to the heavy rainfall in the delta region, the water demand for irrigation has gone down, which has led to a spike in the storage in Mettur dam.

With the inflow remaining higher than the discharge, the current water level at the dam stands at 119.41 feet with an inflow of 2,701 cubic feet per second (cusecs). While 500 cusecs is being released for irrigation in the delta region, 300 cusecs is being released to the east and west canal irrigation.

Currently, the dam has 92.53 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet of water in storage. The farmers in the region are understandably happy as Mettur dam would soon reach full capacity for the third time this year.