Siruvani level up, water supply to be increased

Bringing cheer to nine wards in the corporation areas and the villages surrounding Siruvani, 101 mld of water will be supplied every day, sources in the TWAD department told DC. The water level of Siruvani as of Wednesday stands at 871.65 m as against the full reservoir level of 878.5 m.

Not just Siruvani, almost all the reservoirs in Coimbatore including Aliyar and Sholaiyar are fast filling up. The water managers in the district are hopeful that the reservoirs would fill up by the end of the monsoon. Meanwhile, the villages in and around Siruvani are inundated.

Nestled in the Western Ghats inside the forest range of Kerala, Siruvani reservoir is located 863.4m above sea level. Last year in August the Siruvani dam filled up and the status quo remained so for the next three months. This year the chance of Siruvani touching the FRL is high even before August. The dam is just short of 6.85 m to reach the FRL and if this kind of rain continues in the catchment area, the dam is expected to get filled by next week.

For the last ten days the rainfall in the catchment areas has been hovering between 95 mm and 150 mm, but in the last two days there has been a sudden surge with rainfall recording 212 mm on Tuesday and 222 mm on Wednesday. Earlier in August 2014, Siruvani had recorded 202 mm rainfall and that was the maximum but on June 24,2015 alone the 222 mm rainfall has resulted in the increase of level by 2.85 m.

The increase in the level could also be attributed to the swelling of the tributaries -- Muthilkulam, Sholayaru and Yanaiaru, from which water has been flowing into Siruvani. Due to the heavy rains, several landslides have been reported in and around Siruvani.