The Stanley Reservoir in Mettur has registered an increased inflow since Tuesday evening.
The inflow that stood 5,023 cusecs (cubic feet per second) on Tuesday morning, rose to about 23,000 cusecs in the evening. The inflow was 23,077 cusecs on Wednesday evening, according to Public Works Department sources.
The Mettur Dam received copious inflow during the middle of July and August following widespread rain in the catchments of Kabini and Krishnaraja Sagar reservoirs.
Due to the continuous heavy inflow, the Stanley Reservoir reached its full reservoir level twice on July 23 and August 11, forcing the authorities to release the entire inflow into River Cauvery for many days leading to floods.
However, there was a fall in the inflow by the end of August and it went down below 10,000 cusecs from September 4 and remained so till Tuesday.
Due to the increased inflow, the water level in the dam stood at 104.59 ft against its full level of 120 ft. Irrespective of the increased inflow, 22,800 cusecs of water was being discharged from the dam – 22,000 cusecs for Cauvery basin and another 800 cusecs in the east and west canals of the dam for farm operations in about 45,000 acres in the three western districts of Salem, Namakkal and Erode.
Mettur town and the surrounding areas experienced 42.6 m.m. rainfall in the last 24 hours that ended 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
