Tamil Nadu: Most dams in west districts full to brim after copious rains

COIMBATORE: Most dams in western districts have reached full capacity or are closer to their brim following heavy inflows due to copious rains.

The Mettur dam, which remains the lifeline of farmers in the Delta region continues to stay at its maximum capacity.

“After remaining at full reservoir level (FRL) of 120 feet for around nine days, since it got filled up on July 30, the dam’s water level went down slightly due to a dip in inflow. However, the inflow has gone up again now with surplus water from Karnataka reservoirs increasing marginally over the last two days,” said an official.

As of Sunday morning, the Mettur dam had a storage of 119.650 feet and has realised an inflow of 20,505 cusecs while the discharge was increased to 20,000 cusecs from 12,000 cusecs in the morning for Delta irrigation. At Siruvani dam, which caters to the drinking water requirements of people in Coimbatore, the storage level hovers around 42 feet as against its FRL of 49.53 feet, despite heavy rains in catchment areas. Currently, 107 MLD of water is drawn every day from the dam for drinking water purposes.

“The dam’s storage has been maintained at this level by the Kerala government ever since the Wayand disaster happened. Post 2018 floods, Kerala restrained the water level to 45 feet and now again; the dam’s storage level has been further reduced over fears of unprecedented rains. As rains are expected to continue, water storage position may increase in the coming days,” said a TWAD Board official. Meanwhile, a team of experts from Central Water and Power Research Centre are expected to inspect the dam by later this month to plug leaks in the reservoir. “Based on the Detailed Project Report (DPR), funds will be sanctioned by Tamil Nadu to Kerala for undertaking maintenance works of the dam. Once these issues are set right, thereafter the water storage level in the dam would be increased further,” added the official.

Similarly, the Pillur dam, which reached its maximum storage level of 98 feet as against its full reservoir capacity of 100 feet twice recently, is now around 91 feet. “The water level is down now due to the ongoing process of silt removal by Tangedco using advanced technology over the last two weeks,” said an official.

In Erode, the Bhavani Sagar dam is ten feet short of reaching FRL of 105 feet. But, the water level is inching gradually upwards as the reservoir received 3,986 cusecs as against its total discharge of 1,005 cusecs for both drinking purposes and canal irrigation. The dams under Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) also hold a considerable quantity of water. Water storage level in the Sholayar dam in Valparai, considered to be the second deepest in Asia, is at 158.84 feet as against its full reservoir level of 160 feet. The dam’s surplus water flowed into Parambikulam reservoir in neighbouring Kerala improving its storage also.

Similarly, the Aliyar dam has reached its brim with storage of 118.70 feet as against its FRL of 120 feet. In Tirupur, the Amaravathi dam is nearly full at 89.05 feet as against its FRL of 90 feet, while the water level in Thirumurthy dam remains just moderate at 41.60 feet against its FRL of 60 feet.