Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Steady increase in Mettur inflow

CHENNAI: There has been a steady increase in the Mettur reservoir inflow during the last five days due to heavy rains in the upper reaches.

The inflow, which was of the order of 6,000 cusecs till October 4, increased to 8,374 cusecs on October 5, to 9,977 cusecs on October 6, to 12,054 cusecs on October 7 and then it fell to 11,491 cusecs on October 8 and then went up to 12,297 cusecs on Thursday. As the rains in the district are continuing, the current inflow will continue for some more days, according to officials at the reservoir.

The storage on Thursday was 34.55 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) against its capacity of 93.4 tmcft. About 20,000 cusecs was being released from the reservoir for samba cultivation in Cauvery delta districts. At the current rate of release, the storage will last for another 20 days only.

As the south-west monsoon normally recedes by September last week, there is little possibility for the reservoir to get copious inflow in the coming weeks. So, the current storage had to be stretched till the onset of the north-east monsoon, which normally sets in by October first week.

Public Works department officials here said prudent management of available water is imperative to meet the irrigation requirement of samba crop, which had been cultivated on about 4.5 lakh hectares in the delta districts. If the north-east monsoon is normal there would be no hitch in successful completion of samba cultivation. But the question is whether the north-east monsoon will bring copious rains to the State.

Meanwhile, general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Association S. Ranganathan, is confident that the State would get normal rains during the monsoon. The hot weather in the last two weeks in the delta districts had already resulted in sporadic rains in some parts of the delta districts. He said the current hot spell would lead to heavy evaporation, which, in turn, would result in heavy precipitation during October when the standing samba crop would require water.

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