Heavy rains lashing acrossTamil Naduhave yielded the 90 reservoirs in the state a combined storage of 88% of their total holding capacity. Half of the 14,138 Irrigation tanks in the state have more than 50% storage as on Monday. About 20,000 cusecs of water will be released from Mettur reservoir in Salem district on Tuesday morning. Initially about 5,000 cusecs will be released and it will be stepped up in due course, said officials.
The state received excess rainfall of 43% between October 1 and November 8, with 12 districts – Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Erode, Karur, Namakkal,Pudukkottai, Sivaganga, Tirunelveli, Thiruvarur, Trichy and Villupuram – registering more than 60% increase compared to the corresponding period last year. The delay in the retreat of the southwest monsoon and continuous rainfall till October end had already brought copious inflow into most water bodies. The seamless entry of northeast monsoon is adding to the storage, said a senior official. Incidentally, some 527 irrigation tanks in certain parts of the state like Tirunelveli, Dharmapuri, and Namakkal have nil storage owing to diversion of water from supply channels, poor desilting and encroachments.
The combined storage of all the reservoirs stood at 197.5 tmcft water as against a total capacity of 224.297tmcft water. With an inflow of 27,600 cusecs of water into Mettur, the dam is fast filling up. Surplus water is being released from Kabini andKrishnarajasagarreservoirs in Karnataka as both are brimming. The storage in Mullaperiyar dam on Monday was 6.735tmcft water as against a total capacity of 10.57 tmcft water. Nadu has been drawing 1,867 cusecs through tunnels.