Chennai: A majority of dams and reservoirs in Tamil Nadu are now nearing the 40 per cent storage level and 2018 is likely to be a water surplus year as there are three more months of rain, say Public Works Department officials, who are monitoring water levels.
Interestingly, dams in western districts have more than 50 per cent water of the storage capacity. Mettur and Bhavani Sagar have been continuously receiving inflow due to good rains in the Cauvery and upper Bhavani catchment areas.
Mettur, with an inflow of 18,000 cusecs of water on Tuesday, had 67 feet of water against its total height of 120 foot.
Similarly Bhavani Sagar dam, which irrigates Erode and Tiruppur, received around 4,000 cusecs of water on Tuesday with its storage capacity nearing 60 feet of the total 120 feet capacity.
The total storage potential with run-off water of TN rivers is around 800 TMC of this now the state would have recorded around 200 TMC of water with about 100 TMC in reservoirs and another 100 TMC in lakes and water bodies and this would help most of southern and western Tamil Nadu. However the situation is still grim for north Tamil Nadu and Chennai. With Chennai water storage level still limping around 3 per cent of its total capacity, sources added.
Coimbatore and Krishnagiri district have received surplus rains in the past two months with most of the dams recording above 60 per cent of their total level. “In case of Tirunelveli and Madurai the monsoon spells are not encouraging. Only during the last week of August, parts of Tirun-elveli including Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve received good rains,” said a district forest officer.
Papanasam dam, Manimutharu and Ambasamudram are slowly filling up with just 30 per cent of water, PWD sources said.
