Water discharge from Mettur dam increased to 2 lakh cusecs

SALEM: Following heavy rains in catchment areas and copious inflow into the Stanley reservoir in the district, water discharge from the dam to Cauvery river increased to two lakh cusecs from Thursday morning.

Incessant rains in catchment areas and also water discharged from dams in neighbouring Karnataka resulted in heavy inflow into Mettur dam, official sources said, adding that the district administration sounded a flood alert to the people living on river banks and in low-lying areas.

The discharge was 1.40 lakh cusecs on Wednesday-Thursday midnight and increased to to 1.85 lakh late in the evening and heavy inflow resulted in release of two lakh cusecs this morning, which was 30,000 cusecs three days ago, official sources said.

The dam capacity is maintained at 120 ft, with water availability of 94 TMC, official sources said. The highest discharge of surplus water from the dam was recorded at 2.17 lakh cusecs in 2018, they said.

Some of the houses near the dam in Mettur were waterlogged and the Mettur-Edappadi road was inundated, the sources said, adding that farmers in the area were also fearing damage to their crops.

Meanwhile, the Aliyar dam in Pollachi neighbouring Coimbatore was at 118 ft, as against its capacity of 120 ft, necessitating the release of surplus water. The administration sounded a flood alert to the people living on the river banks to move to safer places.

Chinnakallar in Coimbatore district received 14 cm rains, which officials said was the highest in the last 24 hours in Tamil Nadu, while Valparai received 12 cm, Solayar 9 cm and Sincona 7 cm.