Tamil Nadu: Vaigai’s water level rising, second flood warning likely

MADURAI: Rains in the catchment resulted in water level in the Vaigai dam increasing and with the first flood warning already in effect, the second flood warning is expected to be issued by Wednesday morning.
The southern districts have been experiencing rains intermittently for the past few days, and the climate has remained cloudy. In Theni district, the catchments of the major dams received moderate to heavy rainfall, resulting in the inflow to the dams increasing.
Vaigai dam’s water level has hovered at around 65ft since the first week of June this year and the first flood warning was issued in Theni district twice in the last two months. It was issued on May 27 and now again on July 9, when the dam’s water level crossed the 66ft mark.
Water level in the Vaigai dam stood at 68.29ft against its maximum level of 71ft at 8am on Tuesday. The first flood warning is issued for Vaigai river when the dam’s water level crosses 66 feet, the second when it touches 68.5ft and the third at 69 feet. Meanwhile, as the inflow decreased the level did not increase as expected on Tuesday evening.
Mullaperiyar dam’s catchments have been receiving heavy rainfall for the past few days resulting in the inflow increasing and it stood at 1717 cusecs on Tuesday. This resulted in the dam’s water level going up to 130.05ft at 8am and 1,200 cusecs was discharged from it.