Even as the water level in Mettur dam has reduces drastically, Salem Corporation officials say that it will not affect the drinking water supply in Salem city in the coming months.
For Salem Corporation, drinking water is supplied through Salem-Mettur dedicated water supply scheme and the Attur-Nangavalli water supply scheme. The city distributes drinking water through 1.2 lakh water connections, including over 1,380 commercial water connection, and 6,970 public taps. Apart from these, there are 3,068 borewell pipes.
On Saturday, Mettur Dam’s water level stood at 37.50 feet against its full capacity of 120 feet. The storage level stood at 10.83 tmc ft against its full capacity of 93.47 tmc ft. Inflow into the dam reduced to 4,524 cusecs from Friday’s inflow of 5,299 cusecs. Discharge from the dam for delta irrigation continued at 6,500 cusecs.
Officials attached to the Water Resources Department said that as water discharged from the dams in Karnataka had reduced and the amount of water discharged was higher than the inflow, the dam’s water level had dropped. Until the water level reached 20 feet in the dam, water would be discharged for delta irrigation. After that, only 500 to 1,000 cusecs would be released for drinking water purposes.
The officials are hopeful that rain will increase in catchment areas in the coming days and will increase inflow into the dam. Till now, there has been no instruction from the government regarding stopping water for delta irrigation, they say.
Salem Corporation officials said that per day 130 MLD water was received through the Attur-Nangavalli water supply scheme. Expressing hope that monsoon rain would help get water in the coming weeks, they said there would be no problem in drinking water supply for the next six months.
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