The northeast monsoon has not been active in this arid district unlike in other parts of the State, but the Big Tank, which catered to the supplementary irrigation needs of the farmers here, has sufficient storage, thanks to the release of water from Vaigai dam.
For the first time since 2009, the storage in the tank reached about 400 mcft against the tank’s full capacity of 618 mcft as the district received 2,589 cusecs of water from Vaigai dam till December 12 against its full credit of 2,800 cusecs, official sources said. Since the onset of northeast monsoon in the later part of October, the district has been receiving intermittent rains but they were not sufficient to fill the major irrigation tanks in the district such as the Big Tank, Sakkarakottai Tank and RS Mangalam Tank.
After the water level at Vaigai dam reached comfortable position, the State government ordered discharge of 1,400 cusecs of water to the district on November 28 for eight days till December 5 but continued the discharge till December 12, thanks to copious inflow into the dam.
“We have sufficient storage at the Big Tank and whatever rains we received so far would be more than enough to save the paddy crops cultivated on about 1.17 lakh hectares in the district,” N.V. Krisnnamoorthy, Joint Director of Agriculture told The Hindu . Sources in the irrigation department of Public Works Department (PWD) said that the Big Tank could not receive sufficient water during the last three years. Now, water received from Vaigai dam was diverted to 241 system tanks to supplement the irrigation requirements of the farmers, the sources said.
Meanwhile, authorities on Sunday released 1,100 cusecs of water from Vaigai dam to meet the irrigation requirements of farmers in Sivaganga district. The released water is expected to reach Viraganur regulator on Monday afternoon, official sources said. The water being released for eight days would be diverted to 87 system tanks to supplement the irrigation needs of farmers, the sources said.
