Cyclone alleviates water worries in Mangaluru

MANGALURU: Thanks to Cyclone Vayu, people in the city and Dakshina Kannada can heave a sigh of relief. The city that was facing a drinking water crisis due to the late onset of monsoon, got relief due to the copious rainfall brought about by the cyclone. However, on the negative side, it further delayed the onset of monsoon on the Karnataka Coast.
The district received 137 mm rain in the five days from June 12, which helped overcome the acute drinking water crisis in Mangaluru city and others parts of the district, due to the cyclone. Though the rain was much less in the five days mentioned earlier, as compared to the similar period in 2017 and 2018, which were 182mm and 234 mm, respectively, more importantly, it has resulted in the inflow of water into the Nethravathi river, which was much needed.
Mangaluru City Corporation executive engineer Linge Gowda said: “There is sufficient inflow into the Thumbe Dam at Bantwal. The inflow was nil prior to June 12, and the water level was at 2.1 metres, with dead level storage being 1.3 metres. Now Thumbe Dam is getting 200 to 300 cubic metre per second (cumec) inflow, which is helping the dam get three times the water that is being pumped into the city. This rate of inflow will help the water level in the dam to rise by a metre in 24 hours, whereas good inflow would achieve this in about three hours.”
There is further good news, with IMD scientists on Sunday saying that the monsoon has advanced into the southern tip of Mangaluru (Ullal area) and will advance further into other coastal areas within two to three days. As far as rain is concerned, the last 16 days of June has brought about only 198 mm of rain, whereas it was 593mm in 2018 and 421mm in 2017, which is 200% more than what the district has received so far compared to both the years.