Siruvani Dam: Stalin urges Pinarayi Vijayan's intervention

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday urged his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan to maintain storage in Siruvani Dam up to the Full Reservoir Level to meet the water requirements of Coimbatore city and its suburbs.

The Kerala irrigation department is maintaining the maximum water level of Siruvani Dam at 877.00 m instead of the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) at 878.50 m, as stipulated in the inter-state agreement, Stalin said in his letter to Vijayan.

Lowering of the water level by 1.5 m results in shortage of 122.05 million cubic feet (MCFT) of water, which is 19 per cent of the total storage. This creates difficulties in catering to the needs of Coimbatore city in summer months.

For the past six years, the state has received water only in the range of 0.484 TMC to 1.128 TMC, as against 1.30 TMC stipulated in the agreement.

Tamil Nadu has been continuously requesting Kerala to take steps to ensure FRL storage and despite him writing to Vijayan in February, no steps have been taken so far to restore the storage to FRL, Stalin noted.

"Considering the water shortage faced by Coimbatore city, I once again solicit your personal intervention in this matter and urge you to direct the authorities concerned to maintain the storage of Siruvani dam upto FRL i.e., 878.50m in future. Only this step can help us to meet the water requirement of Coimbatore city and its suburbs. I look forward to a positive response in this regard," he said.

The Siruvani Dam, built across the Siruvani river, a tributary of Bhavani river, is in Palakkad district of Kerala.

On February 1, 2022, Stalin had urged Vijayan to ensure FRL storage of 878.50 m in Siruvani Dam and increase water supply from the reservoir to Tamil Nadu, to meet the level of 101.40 million litres per day (MLD).