An excruciating wait for heavy rain in the catchments of the Siruvani Dam seemed to have ended on Friday morning. The dam recorded 95 mm rain for 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. that day.
This was the heaviest rainfall so far since the onset of the South West Monsoon in July.
The rainfall had been largely in single digit, barring the occasional spells of 45 mm, 42 mm and 35 mm between July 28 and the second week of this month.
The catchments in Kerala (where the dam also is located) were under a thick cloud cover.
The Siruvani stream near the catchments was in spate.
“There is heavy inflow to the dam from the falls that bring water from the upper reaches of the Siruvani hills,” Assistant Executive Engineer of Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board S. Sampath Kumar said on Friday.
Fears
When fears of a scarcity triggered by a rainless phase late last month were pointed out, the official had then said that the dam could fill up even if the monsoon revived towards the second or third week of August.
“It does appear to be a revival of the monsoon. But, we fervently hope that the heavy rain continues,” Mr. Sampath Kumar said, not wanting to sound too confident because of the situation so far this year. The water level in the dam rose by more than three feet in the last couple of days.
It was about 30 ft on Friday, as against the full reservoir level of nearly 51 ft.
Only torrential rain from now would lead to the dam filling up, leave alone water overflowing from it.
