CHENNAI: The recent rains across the state have significantly increased water levels in the state's reservoirs. The Water Resources Department maintains 90 dams with a combined storage capacity of 224 TMC, including 15 major dams such as Mettur, Bhavanisagar, and Periyar, which alone account for 198 TMC of storage capacity.
These reservoirs play a crucial role in meeting irrigation, drinking water, and industrial needs across multiple districts. As of now, the total water reserve stands at 185.9 TMC, which includes 82.91 per cent of the total capacity.
According to reports, Mettur Dam in Salem holds the highest storage at 93.31 TMC followed by Bhavanisagar (27 TMC), Parambikulam (12.87 TMC), Selaiyar (4.98 TMC), Sathanur (4.85 TMC), Periyar (4.69 TMC) and Vaigai (4.51 TMC).
The water accumulated during the monsoon is now being released in a phased manner for irrigation and drinking purposes.
Tamil Nadu has 14,141 irrigation lakes, out of which 422 are full. As many as 1028 lakes are between 76 per cent to 99 per cent full, while 1716 lakes hold 51 per cent to 75 per cent of their capacity.
Apart from this, 3,543 lakes are at 26 per cent to 50 per cent full, and 5,178 lakes have only 1 to 25 percentage of water. The data notes that nearly 2254 lakes remain entirely dry.
While Madurai has 700 dry lakes out of 1,340, Sivaganga has 522 dry lakes out of 1459. In Tirunelveli, 194 out of 780 lakes are without water. However, districts like Ariyalur, Mayiladuthurai, and Nagapattinam have sufficient water reserves in all their waterbodies, ensuring no immediate shortages.