Chennai: The first ray of hope for the samba crop of delta farmers comes in the form of water flowing majestically in the Cauvery into the Mettur Stanley reservoir. Thanks to the copious rainfall in the Cauvery catchment and the consequent bountiful discharge from the Kabini and Krishnarajasagar reservoirs in Karnataka, the water level rose by as much as three feet in the last two days.
The season’s first heavy inflow was recorded last Thursday and by Saturday evening, the inflow was close to 20,000 cusecs. The water level in the dam crossed the 50-foot mark by 4 pm Saturday and the storage was calculated to be 18.161tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) with the dam receiving 19,713cuecs.
At the full level of 120feet, the dam can store 93.457 tmcft. Though WRO (water resource organization) officials were far from being content with the season’s flow, Thursday’s inflow could certainly lift hopes if one were to factor in the southwest monsoon season generally being active till about September 1.
