ANDIPATTI
Theni Collector M. Pallavi Baldev on Wednesday released water from Vaigai dam for irrigation in Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga and Madurai districts.
Following representations made by farmers from the three southern districts, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami ordered the release of water.
Public Works Department engineers said when the storage level in Vaigai dam reached 69 feet (the total capacity is 71 ft), water would be released in a phased manner as the farmers of the three districts had the riparian rights. On Wednesday, the storage in the reservoir was 5,430 mcft.
Through this water release, Ramanathapuram district would get 1,525 mcft of water from November 14 to 21, Sivaganga district 631 mcft from November 23 to 27 and Madurai district 69 mcft from November 28 to 30.
When Vaigai dam had a huge inflow and sufficient storage in 2015, the three districts were able to get a good share of water. Ramanathapuram district got 2,589 mcft of water between November 28 and December 12, 2015, Sivaganga district received 1,063 mcft between December 13 and 21, and Madurai got 938.50 mcft of water from December 24, 2015 to January 7, 2016.
Superintending Engineer (Water Resources Organisation – Periyar Vaigai Basin) Anbarasan, Executive Engineers Subramanian and Venkatakrishnan, Periyakulam RDO C. Jayapreetha, and Assistant Executive Engineers Selvam and Prabhu were present when the water was released on Wednesday.