The steady increase in the inflow of water into the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur, for the first time in many months, has brought cheer to both officials and the farming community.
The inflow touched the four-figure mark – 1,380 cusecs – on Tuesday for the first time since October last year.
Due to the failure of the monsoon and the repeated refusal of the Karnataka government to release water from the Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini reservoirs into Cauvery despite the direction of the Supreme Court, the quantum of inflow into the Mettur dam has remained meagre since mid-October.
On many occasions, the inflow was less than 20 cusecs. The realisation of 11 cusecs on February 19 was the lowest inflow recorded in the last one decade.
The last time the inflow touched the three-figure mark – 116 cusecs – was on April 3; it touched the four-figure mark on October 20 last year.
The inflow into the dam, which stood at 49 cusecs on Friday, rose to 154 cusecs on Saturday and 153 cusecs on Sunday; it further went up to 847 cusecs on Monday.
Decline in storage
About 500 cusecs of water is being discharged from the dam for meeting the drinking water needs of delta districts. As the discharge was more than the inflow, the storage level was steadily and alarmingly going down all these months.
For the first time in five months, the water level rose on Sunday from 19.65 feet to 19.72 feet. The water level continued to raise and it was 19.95 feet on Tuesday. The storage level was 4.086 tmc against the full storage level of 93.47 tmc.
The poor inflow and the alarmingly low storage proved a major concern for the officials as a minimum quantity of water has to be stored in the dam for protecting the fish population and also for different drinking water schemes.
