Water release into Erode’s Lower Bhavani Project canal resumes, following renovations
The Hindu
Renovation work at Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) canal complete; water discharge from Bhavanisagar dam resumed on Aug 15. T.N. govt passed order to irrigate 1.03 lakh acres in Erode, Tiruppur, Karur districts for 120 days. On Aug 15, District Collector raised dam shutters, but stopped discharge due to incomplete work. On Sat, exec engineer said renovation complete, 200 cusecs of water released into canal, discharge to increase phase by phase.
Following the completion of renovation work at the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) canal, water discharge from the Bhavanisagar dam resumed on Saturday.
Usually, water is released into the LBP canal on the customary date of August 15, from the Bhavanisagar dam, for irrigation. This year too, the T.N. government passed an order on August 11 for the release of water from the dam into the canal for a period of 120 days from August 15 to December 13 to iriigate 1.03 lakh acres in Erode, Tiruppur, and Karur districts.
Following this, on August 15, District Collector Raja Gopal Sunkara raised the dam shutters. However, within an hour, the discharge of water was stopped, as the renovation of LBP canal work was not completed. Officials assured farmers that the work would be completed before August 18.
On Saturday, in a press release, the executive engineer of the Lower Bhavani Basin Division said that following the completion of renovation work, water discharge from the Bhavanisagar dam into the LBP canal resumed at 11 a.m. At present, 200 cusecs of water have been released into the canal, and phase by phase, water discharge will increase, the press release said.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.