The Mettur dam continued to receive high inflow on Saturday, taking the water level to above the 50-feet mark.
At 8 a.m. on Saturday, the inflow was 19,713 cubic feet per second (cusecs). The water level stood at 50.55 ft against the full level of 120 ft. The storage was around 18.2 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft), an increase of 1.8 tmc ft in the last 24 hours.
The dam can hold water up to 93.47 tmc ft. Outflow was maintained at 800 cusecs to meet drinking water requirements.
According to Dharmapuri Collector K. Vivekanandan, the inflow at Biligundlu – the entry point of the Cauvery River from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu – has been fluctuating between 18,000 cusecs and 22,000 cusecs over the last two days.
On Saturday afternoon, the Kabini and the Krishnaraja Sagar reservoirs in Karnataka released around 27,000 cusecs, thanks to heavy rainfall in their catchment.
Hogenakkal, the popular tourist spot in the district, would remain closed to tourists for the next few days.
Even though water level is on the rise, the question of release from Mettur for irrigation in the delta will arise only after the storage touches the 55-tmc ft-mark.
Bhavanisagar releaseChief Minister Jayalalithaa ordered release of water from the Bhavanisagar Dam through Kalingarayan canal from July 21 for irrigation, according to an official release in Chennai.
The release would benefit 15,743 acres in Erode district.
