Mettur Dam Storage Dips to 34 TMCFT, Irrigation Supply May Stop by October 14
Water release from Mettur dam for samba paddy cultivation across the Cauvery delta districts may halt from October 14 due to a rapid depletion in storage levels, according to Water Resources Department officials.
As of Monday evening, the reservoir held 34.046 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water, with the water level standing at 71.5 feet. Officials stated that water can only be supplied for delta irrigation until the storage level drops to the critical threshold of 20 tmcft.
The department is currently releasing 15,000 cusecs from the dam to serve both irrigation and drinking water requirements. If depletion continues at the current pace and rains fail in the Cauvery catchment area, irrigation supply will cease on October 14. Once storage touches 20 tmcft, the outflow will be curtailed to between 1,200 and 1,500 cusecs exclusively for drinking water needs. Under those conditions, supply will continue for Veeranam, but flow to the Grand Anaicut will dry up, directly hitting farmers raising samba paddy.
A senior Water Resources Department official attributed the decline to deficient rainfall alongside a substantial deficit in water releases from Karnataka. In its 58th meeting held on September 24, the Cauvery Water Management Authority directed Karnataka to release 4,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu for 15 days. However, flows recorded at Biligundulu remained below 2,000 cusecs over several days and plummeted to 1,424 cusecs by 4 p.m. on Monday.
Officials noted that between the start of the water year in June and October 1, Karnataka was required to release 123.7 tmcft to Tamil Nadu, but released only 44.4 tmcft, leaving a cumulative deficit of 79.3 tmcft.
The impending stoppage has raised deep alarms among farmers in the delta belt. Swamimalai S Vimalnathan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers’ Protection Association, pointed out that water has not yet fully reached the A channels on either riverbank, while several B, C, D and smaller branch channels remain dry. He noted that direct sowing is not feasible across all tracts and that farmers urgently require sufficient water during the third week of October to transplant seedlings from nurseries, warning that saplings will wither without adequate supply.
