Flood alert issued to 15 villages as water from Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai released

A flood alert to 15 villages along the bank of Thenpennai river has been issued by the Water Resources Department (WRD) as 1,000 cusecs of water per second is being released from the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai on Friday, after the level reached 114 feet as against the dam’s total capacity of 119 feet.

Water release from the dam is done periodically since the onset of southwest monsoon. This time, heavy rainfall in catchment areas in Krishnagiri Dam, also known as the Krishnagiri Reservoir Project (KRP) Dam. Around 2,100 cusecs of water was released from Krishnagiri dam at 8 a.m on Thursday.

The released water is expected to reach Sathanur dam around 4 p.m on Friday. “The outflow from the dam will be increased up to 10,000 cusecs and more depending on water inflow to the dam in the coming days. So, the entire 250 villages located downstream of the dam should be on high alert,” K. Santhosh, Assistant Engineer (AE), WRD (Sathanur Dam), told The Hindu.  

Officials of WRD, which maintains the dam, said that sluice gates of the dam that is located 8 km away from the reservoir downstream were opened to discharge water into the dam’s left and right bank canals. Of the total storage capacity of 7,321 mcft of water, the dam had storage of 6,134 mcft.

In his order, Tiruvannamalai Collector K. Tharpagaraj has asked residents in villages along the bank of the river to relocate themselves to safer places away from the riverbank. Local panchayat and revenue officials and the police were also directed to take necessary steps to move residents from low-lying areas along the riverbank to safer places. Residents were also warned from crossing the river as the water flow has been on the rise. 

Every year, four tmc of water is stored in the dam for irrigation. The dam also helps to store water in 88 tanks along the route in these districts. While water from the dam’s Left Bank Canal feeds 30 tanks in Tiruvannamalai and 10 in Villupuram, the Right Bank Canal is connected to 48 tanks in Villupuram. The dam also provides at least two tmc water for domestic consumption of residents in at least 150 villages and major towns like Chengam and Tiruvannamalai, without reducing its deck storage level of 56 ft.