Cauvery flow from Mettur reaches Tiruchi, raising hopes for samba
Cauvery water from Mettur Dam reached Mukkombu near Tiruchi on Sept 4, raising hopes for the samba crop despite concerns over the release duration.
Water released from the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur has reached the Upper Anicut at Mukkombu on the outskirts of Tiruchi. The flow, which began after Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay opened the dam shutters on September 1, moved past the city towards Kallanai on Friday, September 4.
As the water passed the Mukkombu regulator, farmers and local residents showered flower petals on the river in a traditional gesture of welcome. The release is intended to support irrigation in the Cauvery, Vennar, Kollidam and Grand Anicut Canal systems, with distribution for the samba season scheduled to begin on September 6.
This year, water was not released from Mettur Dam for the short-term kuruvai crop on its scheduled date of June 12 due to poor storage. The current flow, however, is expected to aid samba paddy cultivation across Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Ariyalur districts, as well as Karaikal in Puducherry.
While about 7,000 cusecs is being released from Mettur, the realisation at Upper Anicut was only about 1,500 cusecs by Friday afternoon. Officials from the Water Resources Department attributed the slow arrival to the river bed being largely dry for over six months, adding that the flow is expected to gradually increase.
Despite the positive development, farmer associations have expressed concerns over the state Water Resources Minister N. Anand's announcement that water would be released for a period of 45 days. They argue this duration may be insufficient to sustain the full samba crop. Storage at Mettur Dam stood at 55.18 tmcft on Friday against its full capacity of 93.47 tmcft.
Farmers have urged the state government to secure Tamil Nadu's due share of Cauvery water from Karnataka. "We welcomed the Cauvery waters with trepidation as we have not been able to get our monthly quota of water from Karnataka, which is refusing to release water even after its dams have filled up," said Ayilai Siva.Suriyan, district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivsayigal Sangam. He also noted that the looming Super El Nino effect casts uncertainty over the northeast monsoon, making it potentially unfeasible to raise the samba crop with the currently available water.