A large quantum of water has been released from Periyar dam on Sunday to improve storage in Vaigai dam to enable it to meet drinking water needs of southern districts, including Madurai city, thanks to heavy inflow into the dam owing to sharp showers in the catchments and in the dam site for the past two days.
The Public Works Department (PWD) engineers started discharging 600 cusecs of water since morning. Flow was heavy in Periyar river near Gudalur, Cumbum and Uthamapalayam. This discharge would help recharge wells sunk on the river bed. The panchayat officials heaved a sigh of relief as they could manage drinking water needs of villages this summer. With heavy inflow into the dam, water level in Periyar dam rose to 114.2 feet on Sunday from 113.6 feet on Saturday. However, inflow slumped to 1,712 cusecs from a whopping 2,320 cusecs in the last 24 hours. The dam received 22 mm of rain on Saturday night.
The PWD officials hoped that more than 50% of the discharge would reach Vaigai dam as harvesting was over in the entire Cumbum valley. Moreover, demand for water for irrigation had also scaled down heavily as farmers, who raised perennial and annual crops, only needed water. Majority of them had already shifted to drip irrigation. However, villagers have appealed to the PWD to check indiscriminate lifting of water by water packaging units near the riverside.
Excess discharge would also be utilised to maintain supply to wayside villages and town panchayats. If this trend continued, there would be no problem for releasing water from Vaigai dam for the forthcoming Chithirai festival in Madurai. This water could also be used for annual Chithirai festival of Gowmariamman Temple at Veerapandi, six km away from Theni.
Meanwhile, Vaigai dam has been receiving only 168 cusecs of water since morning. The level stood at 33.46 feet. At present, discharge was restricted to 48 cusecs only.
