Water from Big Tank being released

As the Big Tank in Ramanathapuram has got water close to its brim, Public Works Department engineers have started releasing water from the southern regulator near Karugudi since Monday.

The sluice of the regulator was last opened in 2011.

Though the engineers have closed the inlet of water gushing through the Vaigai, the rainwater from catchment areas continued to flow into the tank.

“The tank which has a maximum depth of 7.5 feet, has water to more than 6.5 feet. Considering that more rain is expected during December, water from the tank is being released for safety of the tank,” PWD Lower Vaigai Basin Division, Executive Engineer, S. Madhana Sudhakaran, said.

With southern regulator located on the lowest level of the tank, water could be released in a regulated manner depending upon the inflow. As of now, 300 cusecs of water was being released.

The Big Tank has a maximum storage capacity of 618 mcft. Every year, only the Vaigai credit of water from the Vaigai dam is released into the Big Tank and around 1.5 feet of water is stored for groundwater recharge and the rest is used for for irrigation.

“But, this year, flood water has been received in abundant quantity and all our credit is still stored in the Vaigai reservoir,” he said.

With around 12,000 cusecs of water released from the Vaigai dam realized at Parthibanur, the PWD officials have been using it to fill up tanks in tail-end regions and around 5,000 cusecs is being released through the river.

Excess release of flood water from the Vaigai dam had resulted in inundating of several villages and roads after it outflanked a few days back.