Officials on alert as Cauvery and Kollidam are in spate

TIRUCHI

With almost all reservoirs along the western ghats reaching their maximum capacity and their catchment areas continuing to experience heavy rain, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has sounded a high alert along the banks of the Cauvery and the Kollidam rivers.

The realisation of water at Mayanur regulator in Karur district across the Cauvery river that stood at 1,96,453 cusecs at 6 p.m. on Wednesday came down to 1,50,657 cusecs at 6 p.m. on Thursday. The discharge from Mettur came down to about 75,000 cusecs on Thursday evening from about 1.50 lakh cusecs, thereby bringing a sigh of relief to the water managers. However, the officials say that the flood threat is far from over.

According to sources, besides the Stanley Reservoir, the Bhavani Sagar Reservoir, Amaravathi dam, Nanganchiar dam and Kudaganaru dam were full and they were discharging the entire quantum of inflow. After traversing through their courses, the flow from the dams had been joining the Cauvery river at various points. The inflow of the Palaru and the Puranthalaiaru have also been joining the Cauvery river. There was a prospect of an increase in the flow of jungle streams due to the ongoing heavy rain in the western and some southern districts of the State.

“The reduction of flood water discharge from Mettur is certainly a relief. However, we are still on high alert as the catchment areas of various dams continue to experience moderate to heavy rains,” says R. Sornakumar, Superintending Engineer, WRD, Tiruchi.

As the Cauvery and the Kollidam were in spate, K. Manivasan, Principal Secretary, WRD, visited the Upper Anicut at Mukkombu on Wednesday. He has been camping in Tiruchi for two days to monitor the flood situation here and other delta districts. He instructed the senior officials to check the officials and field staff, who were deputed on flood patrolling duty. At midnight on Wednesday, Tiruchi Collector M. Pradeep Kumar made a inspection and checked whether the flood patrolling officials were on duty at Upper Anicut.

Mr. Sornakumar added that the current focus was on draining the flood water without having an impact on the standing crop and infrastructure.

Bund over wash and earth sliding had been reported at 15 spots along the banks of the Cauvery and the Kollidam. All of them have been set right, Mr. Sornamumar added