With the Water Resources Department announcing that water for irrigation in the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) canal will be released only till April 3, farmers associations has urged the department to release water at least till the end of fourth wetting schedule.
At 2 p.m. on Sunday, the water level in the dam stood at 50.59 feet against the full reservoir level of 105 feet. The inflow was 24 cusecs, while the discharge was 2,300 cusecs into the LBP canal, 500 cusecs into the Kalingarayan canal, and 100 cusecs into the River Bhavani for drinking water purposes. The storage was 4.57 tmc ft against the total capacity of 32.80 tmc ft.
With inadequate water available in the dam, the executive engineer of the Lower Bhavani Basin division in Erode has informed the LBP Ayacut Farmers’ Associations that water will be released only till 8 a.m. on April 3.
But, the Keel Bhavani Murai Neer Pasana Vivasaigal Kootamaippu and Keel Bhavani Ayacut Nila Urimaiyalargal Sangam wanted water to be released till the completion of the fourth wetting schedule. In a joint release, the associations blamed the department for its wrong policy that led to the current water crisis in the ayacut areas.
“Though water available in the Bhavanisagar dam was low, the WRD should have released water only in the LBP canal for the second crop season. But, they have released water in Thadapalli - Arakkankottai canals for the second crop season,” the release added. The issue was taken up with the Chief Engineer in Coimbatore who agreed to release water for the fourth wetting schedule. “But, they failed to keep up the promise and decided to stop water release in-between the fourth wetting schedule,” the release claimed.
The associations sought the intervention of the district administration to ensure water is released till April 7 so that standing crops could be saved to an extent..
