It was yet another annual disappointment for the farming community in the dozen delta districts as water was not released from Stanley Reservoir in Mettur on the customary date of June 12 this year too.
For the seventh year in a row, the sluices of the dam were not opened to commence farm operations in the Cauvery basin on June 12, as the water level stood at a meagre 39.94 ft. on Tuesday against its full storage level of 120 ft. This is the 59th time in the 85-year history of the dam that it has failed to release water on the customary date. The first time that water was released on the date was in 1934. Since then, there had been 10 occasions when water was released before June 12 due to comfortable storage level. Only on 16 occasions, water was released on the scheduled date, according to Public Works Department (PWD) sources here.
As per the annual irrigation calendar of the PWD, water was usually released for farm activities in delta region for 230 days from June 12 to January 28 to raise crops on about 16 lakh acres in the Cauvery basin.
Technically, the dam could be opened for prolonged supply only when the level was at least 79 ft. and the storage 40 tmc, expecting good monsoon period ahead. The dam was also dependent on the combined storage position in Karnataka reservoirs, the PWD sources said.
The farmers of Cauvery basin would need about 330 tmc of water for raising Kuruvai, Samba and Thaladi.
As per the final order of the River Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, Tamil Nadu should get 192 tmc of water during every farm season. However, the Supreme Court, in its final order, reduced Tamil Nadu’s allocation to 177 tmc. But, the State got only 112 tmc last season, the sources said
On June 12 last year, the level stood at 23 ft, and hence, water was released from the dam only on October 2. In 2016, the release was on September 20, when the level stood at 87.68 ft and the storage level 50.39 tmc.
The storage on Tuesday stood at 12.058 tmc against the dam’s full capacity of 93.47 tmc and the inflow into the dam was 847 cusecs, PWD sources said.
With the Kabini and Krishnarajasagar Reservoirs in Karnataka receiving reasonably good inflow of late owing to widespread rainfall in the catchments, flow into the reservoir might go up in the next few days if the situation continued, the sources said.