The Mettur dam.
Credit: DH Photo
Chennai: With catchment areas of the Cauvery river in Karnataka being pounded by heavy rains, the inflow into the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur increased significantly on Wednesday as a huge amount of water is being released from dams in the neighbouring state.
The inflow into the 90-year-old reservoir touched 20,000 cusecs on Wednesday, as against 5,000 cusecs on Tuesday. At 5:30 pm on Wednesday, the inflow into the dam stood at 20,910 cusecs, while the outflow was 1,000 cusecs. The water level stood at 46.80 feet as against the full reservoir level of 120 feet, while the storage was 15.856 tmcft.
The water inflow at Biligundlu, the entry point of Cauvery water into Tamil Nadu from Karnataka, was 21,000 cusecs. As huge quantities of water were being released from Kabini, Krishnarajasagar and other reservoirs in Karnataka, the famous Hogenakkal falls in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu continued to overflow.
The Mettur dam was not opened on the designated date of June 12 this year for cultivation of kuruvai (short-term crop) due to non-availability of adequate water. The state government, which has not been able to impress upon Karnataka to release Cauvery water due to it, is hoping that the dam gets full in the next one month so that water can be released for irrigation.
The development comes amid a war of words between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the release of Cauvery water. While Karnataka has refused to release 1 tmcft of water every day from July 12 to July 31 as per the orders of the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC), Tamil Nadu has decided to move the Supreme Court, if necessary, in this regard.