Metur dam water to ease water crisis in Dindigul

Frequency of supply to be reduced to once in 10 or 12 days from 40 days

Minister for Forests C. Srinivasan addressing a review meeting on water supply in Dindigul on Sunday.

With Cauvery water released from the Mettur dam crossed Renganathanpatti and Pudhupatti in Karur district, it is expected to give relief to the people of Dindigul from the acute water crisis to a significant extent.

Frequency of water supply to various wards would be scaled down to once in 10 or 12 days instead of 40 days.

This was highlighted at a special review meeting presided over by Minister for Forests C. Srinivasan at Dindigul Corporation office here on Sunday.

The TWAD Board Executive Engineer Prabhu Ram said that water available for distribution had come down to two MLD against original supply of 40 MLD. With no water in Athoor dam, we had to supply water to 26 wards, which were under the Athoor water distribution system, with Cauvery water only, besides maintaining Cauvery water supply to 22 wards as well.

“To maintain supply to Dindigul city, we had stopped Cauvery water supply to Vedasandur and nearby villages. The Corporation officials too accepted that water supply from Athoor was not made for 40 days. Now, we started drawing 10 MLD of water from the Cauvery. It would ease the situation and water could be supplied to all wards through pipeline. Now, the Corporation will have to streamline distribution,” he added.

With improved supply, supply to 263 habitations in Gujiliamparai and 255 habitations in Vadamadurai unions would resume soon, he hoped.

To augment water supply, Mr. Prabhu Ram suggested that Dindigul could be included in Natham Cauvery water scheme. But we had to share project costs on the basis of water use.

When the Minister asked about release of water from the Vaigai dam, the EE ruled out release as its storage should be 40 feet to discharge water into Vaigai channel. The present storage was only 30 feet.

Collector T.G. Vinay said the Parappalar dam could be desilted soon as a special Central committee planned to visit the dam on August 8 to grant permission for desilting. The Peranai scheme would also be rehabilitated with ₹120 crore sanctioned under Amrudh scheme.

Stating that a special team would chalk out plans for improving water supply in the district on Tuesday and submit its report, Mr. Srinivasan assured to take all-out efforts to solve drinking water crisis. The State government was ready to sanction funds and assistance to solve the crisis, he added.