With temperature soaring by each day, the Salem City Municipal Corporation has made elaborate arrangements to deal with water crisis during the summer season in the region.
For Salem, Mettur Dam is the major water source and given the present water level at the dam, the Corporation officials are hopeful that they would be able to overcome this summer without major water scarcity issues.
As on Monday, the water level at the Mettur Dam has touched 62.95 ft and 8,000 cusecs of water was being released from the dam for distribution purposes. The inflow to the dam has reduced to 35 cusecs.
A senior Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board official said that necessary preventive measures have been taken to meet water needs during the summer. “Over the past three months we have identified most of the illegal connections from the main line in Mettur and they have been disconnected. We have also increased the pumping by two hours”, said the official.
Corporation Commissioner R. Sadheesh said that the Corporation has taken necessary precautionary measures to meet water needs. “We started precautionary measures two months back and the current water levels at the dam is sufficient to meet water requirements during the summer season. While only 90 to 95 mld was required, we have been able draw up to 121 mld of water from the dam to meet water distribution within Corporation limits. We have also arranged six water tankers besides four Corporation tankers and three other alternate water resources as back up to meet water needs.”
