The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Mettur water level not promising

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Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Mettur water level not promising

S. Vydhianathan

Long-term samba cultivation is the only hope

Prospects of getting heavy inflows also bleak
Storage in Karnataka reservoirs is also poor

CHENNAI: The possibility of opening the Mettur reservoir for delta irrigation in the near future is ruled out as its storage is less than 30 tmc ft as against its capacity of 94 tmc (thousand million cubic) feet. The prospects of the reservoir getting heavy inflows in the coming weeks are bleak.

So the delta farmers have to give up the traditional kuruvai cultivation in the current year and their only hope now is long-term samba cultivation, for which preliminary operations have to begin by September. They are nursing the hope that the storage in the reservoir would improve substantially by September so that they could take up cultivation of the long-term crop without difficulty.

The storage in the reservoir on Tuesday was just 24.7 tmc ft with a meagre inflow of 200 cusecs. The situation in Karnataka reservoirs (Kabini, Krishna Raja Sagar, Harangi and Hemavathi) is also grim as the combined storage is only 25 tmc ft as against the combined capacity of 114 tmc ft.

Normally during an irrigation year (from June to May), the Mettur reservoir would get heavy inflows, first from the Kabini reservoir and then from the KRS. But the storage in the Kabini reservoir this year is poor: On Tuesday, the storage was 9.7 tmc ft as against its capacity of 16 tmc ft.

According to a Public Works Department official here, the south-west monsoon is yet to set in the catchment areas of the Kabini river (in Waynad in Kerala). Unless there is heavy rain in the catchment areas, the Kabini dam may not get copious inflows, which will hit the realisation in the Mettur reservoir.

The situation in the KRS is still worse: its current storage is just 7.8 tmc ft, against its capacity of 44 tmc ft. The storage in Harangi and Hemavathi, from which the KRS gets its supply, is also not substantial. If the Mettur reservoir is to get good inflows, these reservoirs should get filled up first. Water from the Mettur reservoir is released only if the storage crosses 60 tmc ft.

Farmers who have filter points (borewells) have gone for kuruvai cultivation. About 40,000 hectares had been brought under kuruvai cultivation this year, against the normal coverage of about 1.15 lakh hectares. Even farmers who raised kuruvai would require river water to supplement the borewell supply.

As the south-west monsoon has made rapid advance since Sunday, water managers here hope that it would soon set in south India and bring copious rain and relief to farmers.

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