The shutters of the Mettur Dam will not be opened for delta irrigation on the customary date of June 12 this year.
The dam’s shutters are typically opened on June 12 each year, depending on water availability, and remain open until January 28 of the following year. The released water irrigates 17.32 lakh acres of land, including 5.26 lakh acres of Kuruvai crops, across 12 districts in the delta region: Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Tiruchi, Karur, Perambalur, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukkottai, and Nagapattinam. However, in the 90-year history of the dam, the shutters have opened on June 12 only 19 times.
The water requirement from Mettur Dam for delta irrigation is 330 TMC. If the delta districts receive sufficient monsoon rain, the water requirement from the dam will decrease.
Due to poor water availability, the Mettur Dam will not open on Wednesday this year. On Tuesday, the dam’s water level stood at 43.71 feet, against its full capacity of 120 feet. The storage level was 14.08 TMC, compared to its full capacity of 93.47 TMC. Inflow into the dam decreased to 390 cusecs from Monday’s inflow of 795 cusecs. The amount of water discharged from the dam for drinking water purposes has been reduced to 1,500 cusecs from 2,100 cusecs.
Officials from the Water Resources Department (WRD) stated that water is usually released from the dam for delta irrigation if the water level exceeds 60 feet on June 12. This year, however, only 43 feet of water are available. According to the Supreme Court verdict, Karnataka ought to have released 177.25 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024, of which 81.4 TMC of water has reached the Tamil Nadu–Karnataka border at Biligundlu. Of this, Mettur Dam received only 76.71 TMC of water. From January to May this year, 19 TMC of water was released from the dam for drinking water schemes. The current water level in the dam is insufficient for irrigation, as drinking water must be supplied to 13 districts, officials added.
