The Stanley Reservoir in Mettur achieved its full reservoir level (FRL) of 120 ft on Monday, marking the 39th time the water level at the dam has reached full capacity in its 85-year history. The last time this happened was in August 2013.
The realisation of water in the Cauvery river at Mettur, which stood at 68,489 cusecs (cubic feet per second) at 8 a.m. on Monday, rose to 71,097 cusecs by noon. The water level was 119.41 ft (92.534 tmc ft, as against the dam’s full capacity of 93.47 tmc ft) on Monday morning, and the FRL was achieved a little after noon.
The discharge from the Mettur dam into the Cauvery river was stepped up gradually to 80,000 cusecs late on Monday evening, following heavy realisation of water in the river.
According to Public Works Department sources, the discharge, which stood at 40,000 cusecs at noon, was stepped up to 65,000 cusecs at 8 p.m., 75,000 cusecs at 9 p.m. and further to 80,000 cusecs at 10 p.m.
The entire inflow of 73,935 cusecs into the dam was being discharged into the river.
Official sources said the Salem district administration had communicated this to all the other 11 districts in the Cauvery basin, and had alerted them to take precautionary measures.
The official machinery, farmers and the general public celebrated the occasion by conducting special pujas to thank ‘Mother Cauvery’ for the bountiful inflow. R. Senthilkumar, Chief Engineer, Water Resource Department (WRD), Tiruchi region and S. Semmalai, Mettur MLA, were among those who took part in the prayers.
Boy drowns
A 17-year-old boy, who had gone for a bath in the Amaravathi river at Chellandipalayam in Karur district, drowned on Sunday.
The body of R. Sabarish was found on Monday.
Karur Collector T. Anbalagan said that the police and the Fire and Rescue Services personnel had been positioned at various points deemed as vulnerable along the Amaravathi and Cauvery rivers to advice people not to take bath in the rivers on account of the heavy current.
