Tamil Nadu has realised nearly two-thirds of its quota of Cauvery water in a matter of 55 days with 10 more months to go before the water year (2018-19) draws to a close.
Between June 1 and Tuesday (July 24), the cumulative realisation by the State was close to 108 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet. In a full year (June to May), as per the Supreme Court’s verdict of February 2018, Karnataka is required to release 177.25 TMC to Tamil Nadu at the inter-State border, i.e., the Billigundulu gauging site of the Central Water Commission.
In other words, during the elapsed period of this water year, Tamil Nadu got about 74.6 tmc more than what had been prescribed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s final order of 2007, as modified by the Supreme Court. The quantity stipulated for the period was 33.38 TMC.
Till 10 days ago, the realisation of Cauvery water by the State was around 40.5 TMC. But the situation changed since then with the river witnessing heavy flows. Tamil Nadu got about 67 TMC between July 15 and 24.
Consequently, the Stanley reservoir, popularly called Mettur dam, touched its full level of 120 ft a few days ago and remained at the level since then. All the quantity of water it received was being let out into the river.
On alert
There was a marginal fall in the realisation of water at Mettur on Wednesday evening, since the dam achieved its full reservoir level of 120 ft on Monday noon. The inflow into the dam stood at 80,291 cusecs on Wednesday.
The entire inflow of 64,492 cusecs was being discharged, officials said.
Collector Rohini R. Bhajibhakare, told presspersons that the security arrangements continued to be in place on the banks of the river in the district and the official machinery was on full alert.
(With inputs from Syed Muthahar Saqaf in Salem)