Mettur water reaches Mukkombu – The Hindu

Water released in the Cauvery from Stanley Reservoir in Mettur reached Upper Anicut (Mukkombu) on the outskirts of Tiruchi on Friday and flowed past the city towards Kallanai.

After Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay opened the shutters of the dam on September 1, distribution of water for irrigation in the Cauvery, Vennar, Kollidam and the Grand Anicut Canal from Kallanai for the samba season would begin on September 6. Due to poor storage, water was not released from Mettur Dam for the short-term kuruvai crop on the scheduled date of June 12 this year.

As the water flowed past the Mukkombu regulator, farmers and the public showered flower petals on the river in a gesture of welcome.

Although about 7,000 cusecs of water is being released from Mettur since September 1, the realisation at Upper Anicut has been about 1,500 cusecs at 4 p.m. on Friday, as the flow has been slow on the river bed that has been largely dry for more than six months. But the realisation will gradually increase, officials of the Water Resources Department said.

While farmers dependent on the river in the delta could not raise the kuruvai crop this year, the water flow is expected to help them to begin samba paddy cultivation in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Tiruchi, Pudukottai, and Ariyalur districts, besides Karaikal in neighbouring Puducherry.

However, farmers associations have expressed apprehensions over Minister for Water Resources N. Anand’s announcement that water will be released from the dam for a period of 45 days, which, they contend, has raised doubts over sustaining the samba crop.

With the storage at Mettur Dam standing at 55.18 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) on Friday against its full capacity of 93.47 tmcft, farmers have urged the State government to get Tamil Nadu’s due share of Cauvery water from Karnataka.

“We welcomed the Cauvery waters with trepidation as we have not been able to get our monthly quota of water from Karnataka, which is refusing to release water even after its dams have filled up. With the Super El Nino effect looming large, uncertainty prevails over the northeast monsoon too. It may not be feasible to raise the samba crop with the available water now,” said Ayilai Siva.Suriyan, district secretary, Tamil Nadu Vivsayigal Sangam, affiliated to the Communist Party of India.